Plans That Only Lead To Dark And Scary Places
by Vehemently Yours
Summary: A Lily/James fic! Takeoff of a play. Sirius wants Lily so he asks James to write love letters for her from him because James is much better than him at that kind of stuff. Sirius's plans usually always backfire though...Pretty funny...Please R+R!!
1. Lily Makes A Vow

A/N-Hello! I am a new author to the Harry Potter section of ff.net. Usually I write and read in the Tamora Pierce section of this site. I'm just not a big Harry Potter shipper. The only HP fics I do read are the Lily/James ones. I don't like to usually read any other ones, so I finally decided to write a Lily/James fic of my own. This story is sort of like a play called "Cyrano de Bergerac" and if you've never read that play, or watched it, you'll recognize the plot because a whole lot of movies and some TV show episodes sort of follow the play. Let's see…which one can I think of right now…Has anyone ever seen Smart Guy on Disney channel? My sister watches that channel and I remember seeing one of those episodes that follows that play. It's the one where Marcus, I think that's his name, likes this one girl, so he asks T.J. to write a letter to her, and then the girl asks T.J. to write a letter to Marcus from her? Well, if you have, that follows the play. And a remake of the play that I've seen is the movie, Roxanne. Anyway, you get the idea. This story isn't exactly love/hate really. It might be a little bit, but I'm not really sure. To tell you the truth, right now, I'm not even sure how this story is exactly going to work, but I'll figure it out as I go, I always do. Umm, I guess this starts in their fifth year.

Disclaimer-If you recognize anything from J.K. Rowling's books, guess who they belong to? Not me. They belong to J.K. Rowling. I did have to make up some characters and some teachers. And I haven't read any of the Harry Potter books in awhile, so sorry if there's some mistakes, although there's not much to mess up on, because if I remember correctly, it never talked much about Harry's parents when they were at school. 

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Shoot, I Don't Have a Title Yet!! AHHH!!

By ChaChaChica

1

(A/N-Okay, you know what? I just realized that I don't have a title yet. I always do that! I start fics and I don't have a title for them yet. Well, if you have any title ideas, please tell me in a review! I need serious help…with the title, and in general too.)

Lily and Marissa walked into King's Cross Station dragging their trunks behind them, and walked through the barrier to enter Platform Nine and Three Quarters where a bright red steam engine called the Hogwarts Express was parked. They saw many witches and wizards rushing about in the Platform, saying their good-byes to their families and hurrying their trunks onto the train. 

Marissa and Lily had been best friends for as long as either of them could remember. They lived next door to each other and had attended school together before they had both gotten their letters from Hogwarts. Lily got her letter first, and after she had told Marissa (Lily had known that you shouldn't really tell Muggles things like that, but she had always told Marissa everything and had decided that this time was no different.), they were both so upset. They had thought that they would have to say good-bye to each other until next summer, and that somehow their friendship would never be the same. They had also got into a big fight. Marissa had thought that Lily would forget about her and make some new witch friends and Marissa had been jealous and hadn't spoken to Lily for two days, the longest they had ever not spoken to each other, but when Marissa got her letter three days later, their fight was completely forgotten in their excitement. Since then, they had never been in another argument again.  

Many of the witches and wizards stopped to say 'hi' to Lily and Marissa. Many were surprised at how much they'd changed over the summer. Marissa had told her mom that she wanted a sort of makeover and a new wardrobe, and Marissa had begged Lily to come with them and do the same. Lily had reluctantly agreed and they had come home very different.

Marissa and Lily had never been very popular. They hadn't been geeks either, they just weren't popular. Looking around her, Lily knew somehow, that this year would be different.

They both got their trunks onto the train, after having to get some help from some people standing nearby. After they were on the train, they began to search for a compartment to sit in. Most of the compartments were already full, so it took them quite a while to find one with two seats left in it. Lily finally opened a door to a compartment, seeing the Marauders, James Potter, Remus Lupin, and Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew, inside.

"Hi James," Lily said. He was the quiet one of the Marauders. He still pulled all the pranks and caused trouble, but he still pulled good grades. In their first year, they worked on a project for their history of magic class and they had become good friends during that. 

The Marauders were the popular boys of the school. Every girl liked them, except maybe Lily and Marissa. They knew that the Marauders had new girlfriends every week and it wasn't really on their to-do list to become one of them.

"Lily? Marissa?" James asked in disbelief.

For a moment, Lily had forgotten about her new look, and as she remembered, she flushed slightly.

"James, how rude," Sirius said, not taking his eyes off of Lily and Marissa. Sirius was definitely the flirt of the group. Lily didn't really know what all of the girls saw in him, but it must have been something. They were always after him. "You've forgotten to introduce us."

Lily rolled her eyes slightly and Marissa glanced sidelong at her, one eyebrow raised.

"Sirius, you know Lily. Lily Evans," James said, hoping the name would ring a bell in Sirius's head.

"Lily?" Sirius asked, just as James had. And then he just sort of ogled at her. (A/N-I love that word, ogled. That is the coolest word ever! I just had to put it in here. That's the first time I've ever put it in one of my stories.

James sighed. "That's what I just said wasn't it?"

"And this is my friend Marissa Alley," Lily hurriedly put in, hoping to draw attention off of her quickly.

"My name's Sirius, Sirius Black," Sirius said, taking each of their hands and kissing them. 

Lily's shoulder shook with barely suppressed laughter and Marissa hid her laughing with a cough. They both found the situation very amusing.

"Sirius, will you just sit down? Honestly, I don't think that they want you to slobber all over their hands!" Remus said teasingly. Remus was one of the _quieter _ones, although he still wasn't quiet enough to actually be technically called quiet. None of the Marauders were quiet enough to be called quiet, except maybe Peter, but he wasn't technically a Marauder either. Peter was on the heavy side and was unusually quiet for one for the Marauders' friends. Come to think of it, Lily wasn't even sure why Peter was a part of their group. He wasn't the best-looking or the most popular guy as the other Marauders were. 

"I am not slobbering," Sirius said huffily. "Besides, the ladies don't mind, do you?" he asked, turning to them.

Marissa couldn't answer because she was still coughing. She was practically hacking her lungs out, and Lily, still trying to suppress her laughter, but letting out a few sort of snorting noises, took a seat. 

Sirius glanced at them both. "Are you two okay? Do you need to see nurse or something?"

"Sirius, there aren't any nurses on the train," James pointed out.

"Well, you've taken healing courses at Hogwarts haven't you Prongs?" Sirius asked.

"No, I haven't."

Sirius looked at Remus. 

"Hey, don't look to me either," Remus said, throwing up his hands. "And besides, I think they're just fine. Apparently, they find you amusing Sirius."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Sirius asked.

"It is only a good think when they are laughing with you, but in this case, they are laughing AT you, which is a bad thing," Remus told him. 

The rest of the train ride was mostly uneventful. Sirius kept trying to hit on Lily, which got annoying after awhile, so she took out her history of magic textbook and began to read that until the compartment door swung open to reveal Lucious Malfoy and Severus Snape standing in the doorway. 

Immediately, all of the Marauders stood up, bracing themselves for a fight or an argument, no one could tell which yet, except Peter, who just sat in the corner seat, oblivious to what was going on. Lily and Marissa stood as well, Lily setting her book down on the seat.

"Well, well, well," Malfoy said, crossing his arms and leaning against the doorframe. "Look who we've found here. Potter, Black, Lupin, and their little lady friends. I don't believe we've met," Malfoy said heading towards Lily and Marissa.

"Oh, but we have Malfoy," Lily said coldly. "We already have."

"Lily?" Malfoy asked incredulously. "My my you've changed haven't you? And then this must be your little friend. What was her name again?"

"Marissa," Lily supplied, still in an ice-cold voice.

"Ah, right," Malfoy said. "Now I remember. You must forgive me, I have trouble with names sometimes."

They heard Snape snicker from the doorway.

"Get out before we make you get out Malfoy," James said, his voice low and dangerous.

"Ooh, what's Potter gonna do about it if we decide to stay? Or better yet, we'll just take Lily and her friend here over to our compartment and have a spot of fun," Malfoy said, eyeing Lily and Marissa.

"Leave them alone," James said, his voice a bit angry now.

"And get out," Sirius added, very angry. 

"Oh come on. They want to come with us right?" Malfoy said, edging closer to Lily and slipping an arm around her waist. 

As each of the Marauders, except Peter lunged for Malfoy, Lily slapped Lucious square across the face. Snape moved into the compartment, ready to join the fight.

"Now get out Malfoy, and you too Snape. I have made it perfectly clear that I do not want to come with you, and I'm sure that Marissa is not going anywhere either," Lily said, her voice filled with venom.

Malfoy looked around him, surveying the odds. The odds were against him unfortunately, he realized, seeing that it was three guys and two girls against two. "This won't be forgotten Lily, and watch your back Potter," Malfoy said, walking out of the compartment, Snape following. 

They all waited until they heard the door shut and Snape's and Malfoy's retreating footsteps.

Anger boiled in Lily's veins. Malfoy and Snape had never paid any attention to Lily and Mariss last year, and only did now because they looked different. And she hated his superior I'm-better-than-you tone. Her hands clenched on her textbook after she had sat back down and picked it up. 

"What is wrong with you Peter?" Sirius demanded angrily. "Snape and Malfoy just walked in here, this close to starting a fight and you just sit there off in La-La Land!" 

Peter turned towards him, his eyes snapping back in focus. "Wha? There was a fight? When? Who?"

"Just now. Malfoy and Snape," Remus answered, in a tone that showed that he was just as angry as Sirius.

Peter turned red and went back to staring out the window. Sirius threw up his hands in resignation and sat down while Remus muttered, "I give up!" and also sat down.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk Lily," James said, putting his wand, which he had grabbed out when Snape and Malfoy had entered, back into the pocket of his robe, and then wagging a finger at her. "We get to Hogwarts soon and you have not read all of your textbooks yet. I finished mine yesterday," he said, sticking his nose into the air, which brought the laughs he had expected and lightened the tense mood.

They finally arrived at Hogwarts some time later and entered the Great Hall. As they took their seats and watched the Sorting, Lily could hear many whispers go up and down the Gryffindor table.

"Who are those hotties?" One boy whispered to his friend. "Oh my gosh. That's Lily and Marissa!"

"Who are they?"

"You don't remember them from last year?"

"Lily Evans? The bookworm with the straight A's? No, you're wrong."

"I am not."

Soon, other joined into the conversation. Lily pretended to be absorbed in the Sorting. A girl named Helena Billikins became a new Hufflepuff. A boy named Goridon Thehors (A/N-Hey, check the name! I came up with that without even thinking about it at first. You know how J.K. Rowling has all of those authors have the names that can be phrases or whatever? Go ride on the horse. See? Goridon Thehors? I didn't even think about that one before I came up with it. I don't even know why it's go ride on the horse. My brain just sort of came up with it by itself. As you can tell I have little control over my brain, which is probably a bad thing…) became a new Gryffindor. 

"Are you listening to all of this?" Marissa whispered excitedly into Lily's ear.

"The Sorting? Umm, yeah, but it's nothing to get all excited over. It happens every year," Lily told her, kind of puzzled.

"No, not the Sorting silly! Are you listening to what they're saying about us?" Marissa whispered, and Lily could tell that if Marissa were talking normally instead of whispereing, she would have made a sort of squealing noise.

"Yes, but I'm trying to ignore it," Lily muttered.

"Why? Don't you want to hear? It's all good!" Marissa told her.

"Well, I just don't like to hear them talk about us as if…we're just sort of objects or property, not people," Lily said, a bit annoyed. 

"Oh, come on. That's how guys always talk about girls," Marissa pointed out.

"I'm going to find one who doesn't talk like that. No way I'm going to have some shallow guy who only cares about looks," Lily declared.

Marissa snorted softly. "Riiiight, good luck with that one Lily. I hope you find a guy like that before you die. Meanwhile, I'm going to listen to what they're saying.

"You do that," Lily murmured, thinking. Was it possible to find a guy like that? 

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A/N-The reason why you don't recognize the plot from any play, TV show, or movie yet is because that aspect of the story hasn't come in yet. I think it will the next chapter, but I'm not sure yet. So, how'd you guys like it? Bad good? Any ideas that won't interfere with my plot that I could use? Should I continue? REVIEW! Any flames will be used to set my math book aflame, which, in turn, will be thrown at my math teacher. Hee hee, he'll never know what hit him!! Flying, flaming math books…not something you see everyday…unless you're in my math class of course. Then you do see it about everyday…Now REVIEW!!


	2. A Plan Beginning

A/N-I'm back! Yup! Back! With another chapter too! Yahoo! Towards the end of this chapter is where the whole Cyrano de Bergerac play part of the story comes in. Has any of you ever seen Roxanne? With what's his face? Steve Martin? I think…Roxanne is a remake of sorts of the play Cyrano de Bergerac, and this story is like that. It starts to get really funny in the next chapter, I already have it all written. Anyway, enough of my talking. Now you can read the next chapter.   

Thank you-Thank you for reviewing!

Walking Contradiction (I love that name by the way. Thanks for the review. And I really like the way I sculpted James's and Remus's and Lily's and Peter's personality. I really don't like Peter, so he'll have as little to do with this fic as possible. I didn't want to make Lily seem all materialistic, because I just don't like it when she's like that. And I always imagined James to be smart, but tricky, charming and prankster sort of person, so that's how I made him. Remus I thought of as smart and less of a prankster than Sirius and James. Glad you like the story so far! I hope you like this new chapter!)

mooncancer (Thanks for leaving a review! I'm glad you like the story!)

Shree (That is a really weird name…I like it! Thanks for leaving a review. Oh and by the way, I really like your favorites list in your bio. I've been "borrowing" your favorites list to find some really good Lily/James fics and you have some really good ones on there! I'm glad you like the story so far! I hope you like this chapter. This is where it starts to get pretty funny I think.)      

Disclaimer-Let's play one question. It's kinda like twenty questions, except without twenty questions. Who owns all of the Harry Potter stuff? Good! J.K. Rowling. Ooh, that was so fun. Let's play one question again. Who owns the stuff that I made up? No, not the government, me! Me! Let's play again. What am I eating? Nope! WRONG! I'm eating nothing! Okay, enough twenty questions with only one question, and now, the story! Oh yeah, I still don't have a title, so give me title ideas in a review! Not having a title is starting to really bug me…

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Still No Title. Grr…

By ChaChaChica

2

Lily and Marissa sat in the Gryffindor Common Room early the next morning. 

"Well, we don't have classes until tomorrow morning, so what should we do today?" Lily asked while reading her book.

Marissa shrugged. "We could just wander around the castle. Go to the library maybe. After we get our schedules at breakfast, we could find out where all of our classes are so that we won't get lost trying to look for them tomorrow," she suggested.

Lily shut her book. "Sounds good. Which one do we do first?"

Just then, they heard everyone waking up, and they also heard screams coming from the girls' dormitory rooms. Lily and Marissa glanced at each other quickly before dashing up the stairs and entering their dormitory. When they walked in, they immediately saw what was wrong. Who would be able to miss three girls with nasty neon green hair and this orange-ish goop all over their faces? Not to mention little…things crawling around on the floor. The girls stood, shrieking, in a small group in the center of the room. 

Lily gasped and tried to cover her laughs with coughs. Marissa didn't even bother hiding her laughs.

"You guys did this didn't you?" one of them, a girl named Alyssiane accused.

"What? What on earth leads you to believe that?" Lily asked.

"You guys are the only ones of us who don't have neon green hair or orange stuff all over your face!" another girl named Carlise pointed out.

"Umm, hello! If whoever cursed your hair just now or just a few minutes ago, I'd like to remind you that we weren't even in here! We were already up! So they didn't have a chance to make our hair green or put nasty stuff on us! And whoever did thi-" Lily stopped short. She had just made a guess as to the person, or rather, persons behind this. Lily began madly groping the air around the room. 

"She's gone insane," the last girl, Marly, said. "Look at her!"

Lily kept on moving around the room, ignoring the girls saying that she was insane. She knew she wasn't insane, just looking for something and she'd know it when she found it. Just as she was beginning to think she was wrong, she walked, her hands still feeling the air in front of her, towards the far corner of the room. 

"Back up! Faster! No, that was my foot you moron! Move back, back! Now!" a voice coming from the air in the corner whispered.

"Now really James, Sirius, Remus. I know you're there," Lily said, facing the corner, her hands on her hips.

"Look!" Carlise said to the other girls. "Now she's talking to the wall! She really has gone mad."

"Just keep scooting back, shhh!" a voice hissed, apparently thinking that Lily couldn't hear them. "No, not my foot! Oww! Aaaahh! Ooff!"

Moments later, Sirius, James, and Remus lay sprawled all over the floor after tripping over each other in their hurry to get into the corner.

"Slick one Padfoot," James muttered, trying to punch Sirius on the shoulder, but couldn't get him because his leg was under Remus and his arm was under Sirius.

"Heh heh," Sirius laughed nervously, giving them a weak smile. "Hello girls!"

"Like the new do?" Remus asked, on the verge of laughing.

What followed was very interesting to watch, which was exactly what Marissa and Lily did. The angry, neon green-haired girls threw whatever they could reach at the boys as they hurried to get out of the dormitory, their heads ducked and their hands up to protect their heads. Lily and Marissa were doubled over, laughing and went out into the Common Room, sitting in their usual chairs. Soon, the Marauders joined them, taking seats in the chairs across from them. 

"Now that was a good one," Remus said, laughing.

That…was…horrible!" Lily said between laughs. "But it sure was funny."

As they shared a good laugh, Carlise, Marly, and Alyssiane stomped by, pausing to glare at them all before stalking out of the common room. 

"Boy are they mad," Marissa said, watching them leave.

"Ahh, they'll get over it. They never stay away for very long. Who could blame them? I don't think any girl could ever stay away for long," Sirius said, crossing his arms over his head.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Let's go get breakfast Rissa."

"But I want to-" Marissa began but when Lily kicked her, she quickly said, "Ow, okay. Let's go." So they got up and left the Marauders in the common room and went to get their breakfast.

"What's Lily's problem anyway?" Sirius demanded. "Most girls would love for me to pay this much attention to them."

James sighed. "Sirius, Lily's different. She likes poetry and romantic letters and-" James broke off as he saw Sirius smile like he did when he had an idea, which was bad since his ideas usually turned out badly somehow. "What?" he asked with a hint of nervousness.

"Oh, nothing," Sirius said, rubbing his chin, in a voice that said that it was really something.

"Good," James said, pretending not to have taken the hint.

"It's just that…" Sirius said slowly. "Well…you like poetry and romantic letters too right? And you can write them really well…" Sirius said, trailing off suggestively.

"What?" James said, jumping in his seat. "No way, uh uh, no way now how! No way I am going to write love letters for you!"

"Why not?" Sirius asked. "You're great at writing stuff like that!"

"So much could go wrong with this plan," Remus told him.

"Name one," Sirius said. 

"Well," Remus said slowly. "What if Lily finds out? Do you know how much that'll hurt her? Hmmm? Did you think about that?"

"Oh come on! James just has to write the letters, I'll do the rest!" Sirius said.

"You'll…do…the rest," James said slowly. "That does no one any comfort Sirius. If anything, that just makes this whole idea worse!"

"Oh come on Prongs! Just one. Write one! After that, I'll do the rest," Sirius said, begged almost, something Padfoot never ever did.

James sighed, running a hand through his messy jet-black hair. "Do you really like her? Truly?"

Sirius thought a minute. "Yes."

James sighed again. "Fine."

Sirius gave James a hug. "Thanks buddy."

"Just one," James told him sternly.

"Just one," Sirius agreed.

Remus sighed after Sirius and James had gone up to their dormitory room, talking about the letter James would write. "So much could still go wrong with this plan. And, knowing Sirius, he'll find every single way to make it go wrong without even knowing it."

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A/N-Hee hee. I loved this chapter. I thought it was kinda funny. The whole thing with James and Remus and Sirius talking about the plan. Anyway…REVIEW!! Pretty please? Hmm? 


	3. James Knows What Sirius Is Saying, But D...

A/N-Hello! Since this is the weekend, I'm updating as much as I can because I am warning you guys right now that the next chapter might not be out until next weekend. I just have too much to do during the week to update, but I might get a chance sometime in the middle of the week maybe. If you want me to email you when I finally do update so that you don't have to keep checking all of the time, just leave your email address in a review. I think I can get at least one chapter posted in the middle of the week though…But that's why I'm updating so fast right now. Today is Sunday so I have a lot of time to do it, although I suppose I should really be working on my English vocabulary homework…

Disclaimer-I do not own any of this stuff. Oh wait, I own any characters that I had to make up. Some of these professors and students and stuff I had to make up because I didn't really think that most of these teachers that are teachers in Harry's time at Hogwarts were there when Lily and James were at Hogwarts except Dumbledore. I think he was the headmaster when Lily and James were at school. Maybe McGonagal, but she would've been pretty young I think. I don't think I'll have her as the Transfiguration teacher in my fic…I don't know yet though. It's not like the Transfiguration teacher has shown up anywhere at all in this story yet anyway.

Thank you-

marzoog (Wow, love the name! Anyway, thank you for the title idea. I haven't decided what I'm going to use yet…I was thinking the Cyrano de Bergerac: Marauder Style title, or Sirius's Plans Always Turn Out Bad or something like that…Grrr…I need to decide! It's really, really starting to bug me, this not having a title…Thank you for reviewing and I'm glad you like my story! I'm glad you think it's a good idea too. I thought it was, using Dumbledore's words, "one of my more brilliant ideas." Okay, it was like, my only brilliant idea, but you get my point. I hope you enjoy this chapter!)

Walking Contradiction (I still think that is such a cool name…Anyway, thank you! ***Gushes*** My story is original! In a twisted way! Or at least the way I incorporate other plots in original in a twisted way…There are other plots incorporated in this story?! Whoa, I thought there was only one…Hmm…Ah well, anyway…I'm glad you liked the second chapter. And no, Sirius does not seriously like Lily. He'll find out soon enough…Mwuahaha! He'll find out when he realizes that Lily is just too much work for him…and that's all I'll say about it! Hah! Now you have to read to find out! Hah! Yup, I agree, poor James. I think that he knows that it will lead him to bad places, but Sirius is his friend, so he feels that he has to help him. Besides, James thinks that Sirius really does like Lily so you know…yeah…Well, thanks for the review!)

kristatwen (Thank you for the review. I'm glad you like the story so far! And thanks for the title idea. I really need to decide what the title's gonna be…I hope you enjoy this chapter!)

Shree (Shree is your real name? That is so cool. I wish my name was something cool like that, but now, my name is boring. Anywho…Umm…Sirius? Normal? Oh come on, I don't think Sirius is ever really truly normal…Ahh, but what is normal anyway? I guess it's one of those it's in the eye of the beholder things…Enjoy this brand new chapter that I only revised about five billion times and it's still not right…)

Lilyflower8602 (Wow, a new reader! Yeah, I think the changing looks thing is a bit cliché as well, but Whoa! Accent thingy! It just comes automatically? Because I wrote touché Whoa! Another accent thingy! Hey! When I wrote touché before, it never had that accent thingy and I couldn't figure out how to put a little accent thingy there! But it comes automatically! Whoa…then I wonder why it didn't do it before when I wrote touché…whoa, cool. Cliché touché cliché touché…Okay enough of that. As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted by the accenty thingy ***Glares at accenty thingy mabob***, I thought the whole changing looks thing was a bit cliché (Cool…) as well but I figured it was necessary since Sirius had to notice her blah blah blah you know? But hey, everything else is pretty original. I'm proud of myself. Anyway, I'm glad you like the story so far! I hope you still like it after you read this chapter. Not saying it's a bad chapter or anything, because it's a pretty good chapter…Anyway…thanks again!)

mooncancer (Wow, thank you! You love all L/J's, particularly mine? Wow, that's just so touching. I think I'm going to cry. No I'm not, but it is touching. Thank you! Yeah, Peter stinks. I don't think he makes one appearance in this entire chapter actually…Down with Peter!) 

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By ChaChaChica

3

The next day, after classes were over for the day, James sat at a table in the Gryffindor common room, writing with Sirius looking over his shoulder. James paused every once in awhile to look up at Sirius over his shoulder. After a bit, he sighed and put down the quill.

"Hey! Don't give up now! It's going great! It had plenty of lovey-dovey mushy stuff that you said she'd like! You aren't finished with it yet," Sirius told him.

"I know! But I can't write with you looking over my shoulder like that all the time!" James said irritably.

"You wrote with me looking over your shoulder just fine!" Sirius protested, but sighed in resignation when James glared at him. "Fine! I'll go…find Remus or something," he said, grumbling as he climbed out of the fat lady portrait.

James sighed in relief. Finally he had some peace to write in. But apparently he spoke too soon, for moments later, a group of giggling girls came over to talk to him. He quickly turned the piece of parchment over.

"Hey Jamsie," one of the girls said, twirling a strand of her hair around her fingers. 

"Hello," James said. He didn't even know her name, so he just left it at hello.

"What are you writing?"

"Nothing," James said quickly, perhaps too quickly.

"Ooh, a _love letter_?" the girl asked.

"Could be," James answered, smiling mischievously.

"Ooh, and who could it be for?" the girl said, smiling flirtatiously and batting her eyelashes.

"Now that would give away the surprise, wouldn't it?" he answered.

Finally, the girls walked off giggling and whispering. James sighed and began writing again. He looked over his letter and sighed again. How'd he get into this mess? And besides, this letter was garbage. He rolled the parchment up into a ball and shot it into the nearest garbage can, and then got out a new piece of parchment and began to write a new letter. He was so absorbed in writing the letter that he didn't notice Lily come and sit across from him.

"Hey James," she said, closing her eyes and rubbing her head. "Can you believe it's only the first day and we already have a ton of classwork to do?"

James jumped. He shoved the paper into his bookbag. It was a good thing she had had her eyes closed, otherwise she would have seen the letter.

"What was that?" she asked, her eyes open now and raising her eyebrows questioningly.

"It was nothing," James said quickly. Again it was too quickly and he could tell she was suspicious, but he was glad she asked no more about it.

"Have you seen Rissa?" Lily asked.

"No," James answered.

"We're supposed to go to the library to work on that history of magic paper. Ahh well, I better go find her. See you later," Lily said, climbing out of the portrait hole.

Again he brought the parchment back out. After he was finally satisfied with it, about twelve pieces of parchment later, he folded it up and gave it to Sirius.

"Thanks Prongs. I owe you," Sirius said.

"Big time," James said. "That letter took me a bunch of parchment and major warding off of giggling girls, except Lily. She wasn't giggling, but I had to ward her off too."

"She didn't see it did she?" Sirius asked nervously.

"No worries. She had her eyes closed. I think she had a head ache or was stressed or something like that," James assured him.

"Good, I'm going to go give it to her now," Sirius said, turning to leave.

"Now? Well, you could give it to her now…" James said, in a voice that told Sirius that he clearly thought it wasn't a good idea.

Sirius sighed. "What's on your mind Prongs?"

"Well, wouldn't it be so much more romantic if she just woke up one morning, the sun streaming through the curtains, the sunlight falling upon a beautiful bouquet of flowers, with the letter beside it?" James asked.

"No wonder you get all the girls. Why can't I ever think of anything like that?" Sirius asked.

James smirked. "Maybe because you're too busy thinking about something else…" he said, trailing off suggestively.

"Hey, that's not a reason since you think of that too and you can still come up with romantic stuff," Sirius pointed out.

"Hi guys, what's going on?" Remus asked, entering the room.

"Padfoot is mad because he's not romantic because he's too busy thinking of other things," James said, laughing.

"Oh, is that all this is? I think I'll just go back to the food then. I just came to get you guys for dinner," Remus said, leaving the room.

"Good, I'm starved," James said following Remus.

"Hey, do you guys think if I thought about other things less often, I'd be more romantic?" Sirius called after them.

"No," James called back.

Sirius shrugged, running to catch up with Remus and James. He clapped James on the shoulder. "That's okay. That's why I got you."

"You won't have me! That was the only one I'm writing for you."

"Ahh, right," Sirius said.

Lily awoke the next morning and gave off a huge yawn. It was only the second day of classes and already she was so tired. She stumbled into the bathroom and took a bath, still half-asleep. Just as she was finished getting dressed and was about to dry her hair, she heard squeals and giggles coming from her dormitory room. Curious, she walked out of the bathroom and into the room. The other girls were gathered around Lily's nightstand, upon which sat some flowers and a letter.

"Ooh, Lily look! You got flowers and a _love _letter," Carlise said, giggling like mad.

"What?" Lily demanded, snatching the letter from the nightstand. She turned it over and tried to find out who it was from but there was no name. What kind of guy would take so much time and effort to write a letter? 

"Who's it from Lils?" Marissa asked excitedly.

"I don't know," Lily said, still in awe of the letter.

""Well open it!" Marissa urged, peeking over Lily's shoulder. 

"Come on, let's go to the library where it's private Rissa," Lily said, holding the letter in one hand, Marissa's arm in the other, and running out of the dormitory and out of the common room. They ran most of the way to the library, slowing down only when they saw a professor, or Filth, the janitor. (A/N-Don'tcha love the name? Filch and Filth!) They took two of the seats towards the back of the library when they got there.

"Well, open it then!" Marissa said excitedly, leaning forward to read it.

Lily slowly opened the letter. 

(A/N-Okay, this letter took me so long to write. I just could not write it! I must have written and rewritten it about twelve dozen times. Some of the letter I kind of took out of the letter William sent to Jocelyn with the help of his friends in A Knight's Tale but only a little bit, and it isn't even really the same, just the same sort of idea. Props if you recognize which parts are sort of from it. You get two bonus stars! They are worth absolutely nothing, but they'll raise your self-esteem a point or two…Oh and I'm sorry, but I thought this letter was the funniest thing in the world. For some reason, when a story or a movie or something is just so so so so incredibly romantic and mushy, I just think it's absolutely hilarious. Sure, some romance and mushy stuff is okay and it's sweet, but some book I've read, they go totally overboard with and I just start cracking up. I thought this letter was hilarious. I'm probably the only one who thinks that though…)

_Lily,_

_            I do not think that we got off on the right foot, and I want to change that. I want things to work between us. When I'm with you, I begin to feel differently about everything. No one else has ever been able to do that to me. You're something special Lily. _

_ If I feel like I'm walking through an endless winter, gray and bleak and dreary, I think of you. You're a burst of color and beauty in a dreary world for me. When I think of you, I feel as if the sun's come out. Please pull me out of this horrible, dark, cold winter and tell me you feel the same. Only then will this winter be gone and only the spring and summer will remain. _

_            What does it mean when you feel dizzy and lightheaded,_

_When you feel like the world has just gotten brighter,_

_When you feel as if you are now really alive,_

_When you feel as if your life has meant not a thing until now,_

_When you feel like your falling, but it's a wondrous sort of falling?_

_I'm not sure what it means, but I think I'm about to find out…_

Lily smiled.

Marissa grabbed the letter. "What? That's it? It doesn't say who it's from!"

            Lily looked closer. "No turn it over Rissa. There's some writing on the back."

" 'Please meet me in the gardens tomorrow night after classes are over for the day,' " Marissa read. 

Lily hated it when people said 'I told you so' but this time she couldn't help it. "I told you I'd find a guy who was different from the rest."

"You didn't find him, he found you," Marissa pointed out. "But you did get one and that's the bigger picture. I wonder who it is," Marissa mused.

"I'll bet he's handsome and sweet and romantic and smart and…" Lily began, but was cut off by Marissa laughing.

"Don't get too carried away now. That's getting a little unrealistic."

They spent the rest of the time they had before classes started making guesses as to who "he" was or what he was like if they didn't know him yet.

Too soon though, classes began and they had to leave the library and they had to leave the subject of the letter since Lily didn't want everyone to know, although her roommates already knew, but Lily still put the letter into her book as a bookmark to carry around with her.

The day passed normally enough, but it was never entirely normal at Hogwarts. In potions, Deevy Dumbell spilled his Enlargement Potion and his head and hands and legs swelled until he looked like a Muggle hot-air balloon. In Transfiguration, Sadrina Cluelessy missed her teapot, which she was trying to turn into a rabbit, and turned Kally McNellens into a rabbit instead, although the spell didn't quite work right because she still had shoes on and her nose was a human nose, not a rabbit's. 

The Maruaders lugged their textbooks into the Common Room.

"I'll bet I have more homework than all of you," Sirius said proudly.

"No, because I got extra work for letting off that Dung Bomb in potions class," Remus said.

"I got extra work in Potions for helping Remus set off that Dung Bomb, I got extra work in Transfiguration for turning Bobbie McKibbin into a pincushion, although Professor Potts said that turning a human into an inatimate object was such a difficult task to do, she was actually very impressed, and I got extra work in History of Magic for hexing the history book to fly and chase after Professor Milligansi," James said. "Beat that Sirius."

Sirius smiled. "I got extra work in Potions for helping Remus set off that Dung Bomb, I got extra work in Transfiguration for sticking a pin into Bobbie McKibbin while he was a pin cushion and even more for sticking a pin into him when he was a person again, I got extra work in History of Magic for throwing a book at Professor Milligansi after she got them to stop flying, AND I got extra work in Herbology for feeding the Venomous Tantaculas a screaming Mandrake."

"He beat me," Remus said.

"Beat me too," James said, pulling out his books to get started on his class work. He didn't have as much as Sirius, but that didn't mean he still didn't have a lot, because he did have a whole lot.

"Why hasn't she said anything? Is she avoiding me?" Sirius asked suddenly.

"Huh?" James and Remus asked at the same time. 

"Lily!" Sirius said. "Why hasn't she said anything about the letter?"

"Oh," James said, shrugging and getting back to writing his paper. "Because she doesn't know it was you who sent the letter."

"What?" Sirius nearly shouted. "What kind of brilliant plan is this? She was supposed to know it was me!" 

"No no no," James started.

"Yes yes yes!" Sirius said.

"You're meeting her tomorrow after classes in the gardens," James told him.

"Oohhhh," Sirius said, finally understanding what James was saying. Suddenly, "I can't do it guys."

"What?" James said, his turn to shout now, after making a few choking noises. "What do you mean you can't do it?"

"Yeah, you're in too deep already Padfoot," Remus agreed.

"I just can't," Sirius said. "I mean she's way too smart for me! She's bound to find out that I didn't write that letter."

"Well, can't you just…act really smart?" James asked. 

"It's just-Are you saying I'm not smart right now?"

"Well…ah…no," James began, faltering slightly. "Just act…you know…smarter." 

"How? Become you?" Sirius demanded.

"You know…if you met in the gardens…it's be easy for someone to hide in the bushes behind you…" Remus said thoughtfully.

"What exactly are you saying Remus?" James asked uneasily. He didn't like it when his friends came up with plans.

Sirius smiled. "I know exactly what he's saying, James ol' buddy ol' pal, and I think you know too."

James groaned. Yes, he did know, but that certainly didn't mean he liked it.

****************

A/N-How was that for a chapter? I thought it was pretty good. Still needs some revision though I think…Anywho…the next chapter people is where the story really starts to get funny. I was laughing when I was writing Sirius and Lily's meeting. I was like seriously cracking up laughing. That's the next chapter people! This one was kind of funny, but not nearly as funny as the next one. The next one involves aliens buzzing inside Sirius's head…Don't ask, you'll have to wait until I post it…And (Hint Hint) if I get lots of reviews saying I should post the next chapter soon, I might just be motivated to post it tonight, or tomorrow after school…Anyway review! 


	4. Sides, Not Slides You Twit!

A/N- Hee hee!! This is where it really starts to get pretty funny. Hilarious! This chapter is anyway. The end of this chapter is kind of pointless to the actual plot but there's a lot of pretty pointless to the plot stuff, otherwise this would be a really short fic if I only focused on the main plot and whatever. And I don't want it to be a short fic. I don't want it to ever end!! Waaaahhhh!! I'm having so much fun writing this! I think I might change the rating, but not right now. Towards the last few chapters, there's a bit of language, you know what kind of language I mean, but I won't change it right now because it's not for another few chapters yet I think…I'm not really sure though…Anywho…enough rambling and onto the…err…other ramblings…Today is Halloween and I am posting this chapter in celebration!! Yahooo!! Right now, I'm on a serious, major sugar rush. My little sisters went Trick-or-Treating and I stayed home to pass out candy, but not many kids came, so I just sat at my computer, eating candy for like, two hours! I swear I'm gonna come into class tomorrow with a huge sugar hangover…Is there such a thing? I think there is…Geez…Whoa, starting to feel the headache…

Disclaimer- I own nothing except for the characters I had to make up. I can't even say I own the plot. I own some of it, but not all of it. I don't even own most of it…Anyway, you get the idea…

Thank you-

Fishy (You know…you're absolutely right. I was kind of leaving Marissa out a bit…I'll try to add her in a bit more in these next chapters…I hope this next chapter's as good as the first! Oh yeah, and when you said that nobody could remember her name, I think you were talking about Malfoy and he was just being a jackass. He's always like that. Everyone else could remember her name just fine. Malfoy was just being…well Malfoy…) 

itish (Thanks for the title suggestions…but I still don't think those are the right ones…I think for right now, I'll make the title Plans That Lead To A Dark and Scary Place. I think that's too long…Ahh well, I'm going to go post this now, so I'll figure it out then…But thanks for the ideas! They motivated my brain to get moving.  

Interested Reader (Wow, you're actually interested? Cool…Anyway…Don't worry, Sirius's plan sort of, sort of almost backfires in this chapter. It really falls apart…*Counts on fingers*…probably like three of four chapters from now…maybe more, maybe less, depending on how long I make the chapters…)

Shree (Yup, sure is a lot to ask of James. Poor Jamsie, he really gets sucked into the middle of this horrible plan that's doomed to failure…But wait until later, he really gets sucked in bad!! Ooh by the way, I read the first chapter to your story, False Perfection, because I didn't really have time to read the rest, and I really liked! I'm gonna read the next chapters as soon as I find the time. That'll be another thing to add onto my humungo dungo list of things I need to do when I have free time…)

Marzoog (Wow, you're name sounds like an alien's name or something! *Looks around secretively* Are you an alien? I won't tell, I promise. One time, my friend, she told me that she liked this guy named Jeff, and I didn't tell anyone yet! Yup…poor James…I'm really beginning to feel bad for him. Right now, I have almost all of this story written up, and I really begin to feel bad for him in, like, the next some-odd chapters…Ummm… *Screws up her face in thought*…Well, like I said, I have almost all of this story written up and he sort of, just sort of, starts developing feelings for Lily in, the next two chapters maybe? I don't really remember. But see, he doesn't exactly notice it at first, but it's obvious that Remus knows because he gives him sidelong glances at certain times and stuff…You know…Now I won't say anymore…

kristatwen (I'm glad you love it! I'm glad you love it! I'm glad you love it! Here's more!! I updated as soon as I possibly could!!! Hope you enjoy!! Oh yeah, and I love your favorites list. I've been reading a bunch of good Lily/James fics from there!)

mooncancer (Wow, you are good at writing reviews! Do you really think all that about my story? Seems like you're talking about the wrong story maybe…)

Lilyflower8602 (I'm glad you don't think my story is clichéd. (Cool accenty thingy mabob…) I don't think it is either. Cliché isn't that bad sometimes though. It all depends on the person writing it! Sometimes it's kinda nice to read a great plot over and over and over again…Just not too much. It's kind of like songs on the radio! At first you like the song, you listen to it 24/7 all of the time, but then, when everyone starts playing it everywhere, it gets a bit annoying…Cliché James/Lily fics haven't gotten annoying for me yet!)   

So has anyone ever seen Roxanne? Or seen Cyrano de Bergerac? Or read the play? Or recognize the plot from a movie? I'm sure there's a more modern movie that has the same plot…Has anyone? Just wondering…

**************

The nest day after classes found Sirius sitting on a bench in the gardens and James hiding in the bushes behind the bench.

"Sirius, I do not like this idea! This is a bad idea," James whispered.

"Hey, check that out! I really can hear you just fine!" Sirius exclaimed.

"But Lily will hear too!" James pointed out.

Sirius muttered a spell under his breath. "Not any more she won't."

"Ahh, so we're supposed to trust one of YOUR spells. There is so much wrong with that I don't even know where to begin. And not to mention, we're trusting one of YOUR plans. There is so much wrong with that too."

"My plans are always good ones!" Sirius said indignantly.

"They are NEVER good ones! The only good plan was the plan where you said that I should make all of the plans from then on," James muttered. 

"What about MY plan to sneak into the teacher's lounge to see what they had in there. Remember that plan?" Sirius asked.

"Oh yeah, I remember that BRILLIANT plan," James muttered sarcastically. "We got caught and spent a whole week after classes in detention! I really don't think that was a part of your plan was it genius?"

"Well no, but what about my plan to start that huge party in the Great Hall? Now that was an awesome plan!"

James smiled, remembering the huge party. That sure brought back good memories. But then he frowned. "But we got even more detention for starting that, and a ton of extra class work!"

"Yeah," Sirius said, smiling, "but you gotta admit, the party did rock."

James smiled again. "Yeah, it did. Ooh, do you remember dancing with Anneliese Hochespa? Now that must have been awesome."

"After the dancing was awesome too," Sirius said, smiling suggestively.

"Who could forget that? Especially when-"

"Shhh!"

"Sorry," James muttered tartly. "I didn't know that I couldn't say anything about it, especially since you were bragging about it for days afterwards. It's not like no one knows about it!" 

"No, I mean here comes Lily!" Sirius whispered.

"Umm, hello? If the spell you put on me works, she SHOULD NOT be able to hear me, remember?"

"Oh yeah. Sorry, I'm just nervous," Sirius muttered as he watched Lily walk down the garden path, looking around.

"Hi Sirius," she said, coming to the bench, still looking around.

"What's she doing?" Sirius whispered.

"How should I know?"

"Umm, what are you doing Lily?" Sirius asked her, standing up.

Lily flushed, making her look even prettier. "Umm, well…I'm looking for…someone…I'm supposed to meet."

Sirius spread his hands. "You're supposed to be meeting me."

Lily jumped. She stared, confused. "What? You? W-w-ait, you wrote that letter?"

"No, I mean yes."

"Good one Einstein," James muttered.

Lily looked a bit taken aback for a moment, but then took a seat on the bench. "I didn't know you could write like that."

Sirius sat next to her, waiting for James to tell him what to say.

"Oh come on Sirius!" James whispered. "Just answer the question! It's a simple question that you should not need my help to answer!"

"I don't like to tell everyone. It's sort of…you know…a secret…hush hush sorta thing," Sirius said.

James hit himself on the head. "Maybe you do need help answering the simple questions. Really buddy, I though you could handle stuff like that."

"Shut up," Sirius snapped.

"What?" Lily asked, confused. "I didn't say anything."

"Okay, tell her that you hear a buzzing in your head. The buzzing is aliens, transmitting signals through your brain and sometimes they get so loud you have to tell them to shut up," James said, trying not to laugh.

Sirius told her.

"What?" Lily asked, even more confused and even a little startled.

James burst out laughing and apparently Sirius's spell worked for once because Lily didn't hear him laughing like crazy.

"Quit messing around, this is serious!" Sirius snapped to James.

"What?" Lily said, for what felt like the hundredth time. "Sirius, are you okay? Do you need some help maybe? Up here if you know what I mean…" Lily said, tapping her head.

"Okay okay," James said, wiping the tears from his eyes. "Tell her that you are just fine since she is here with you."

"That's lame," Sirius whispered, so only James could hear.

"Do you want me to help you or not?" James demanded.

Sirius sighed. "I am just fine now that you are here with me," Sirius told her, if somewhat reluctantly, but it worked, he realized as he saw her look to the ground, her cheeks bright red.

"Now ask her if you've made her uncomfortable. Girls like to know that guys care," James told him.

Sirius sighed. This was way too romantic for his tastes, but asked her anyway.

"No," Lily assured him. "It's just kind of weird, you know? You were never seemed to be one for poetry and romantic writing."

"Umm," James said. She was saying too many things that were hard to find romantic answers for. "Okay, tell her that when you feel strongly about someone, it brings out some different sides to a person."

"When you feel strongly about someone, it sometimes brings out different slides to a person," Sirius told her.

"Sides not slides, you twit!" James shouted.

"Sides not slides, you twit," Sirius said.

"What?" Lily asked again.

"No, don't say that! Tell her you meant sides!" James hissed.

"I meant sides," Sirius said to Lily. 

"Are you sure this time?" Lily asked, smiling.

"Yes, I'm sure," Sirius said. 

"So…What about History of Magic today? The Goflunk Revolution?" Lily asked.

"Uhh, tell her that you, for one, were fascinated. It amazed you that one goblin could start such a significant revolution," James whispered.

"I, for one, found it fascinating. It amazed me that just one goblin started such a significant evolution," Sirius said superiorly. Lily wrinkled her forehead in confusion. 

"Idiot!" James shouted from his place in the bushes.

"Idiot? What'd I do this time?" Sirius shouted.

"Revolution, not evolution!" James shouted. 

"Sirius, really, do you need to see the nurse or something?" Lily asked.

"Ahh, what I meant to say was revolution," Sirius said hurriedly.

"Oh," Lily said slowly. "Listen Sirius, maybe this isn't a good time. Could we meet here tomorrow? Same time?"

"Sure, I'll be here," Sirius said.

"Until tomorrow then," Lily said, getting up and walking down the garden and into the school.

"Idiot!" James said, getting out of his hiding place in the bushes. "I thought you could hear me just fine! You said you could! 'Such a significant EVOLUTION?' and 'different slides in a person?' What was that? I said sides, not slides, and I said revolution, not evolution!"

"I was nervous!" Sirius shouted. "We can just try this again tomorrow, and tomorrow, speak up. She won't be able to hear you again."

"No way am I doing this again," James said, crossing his arms. "It was too embarrassing even to WATCH and you want me to fix everything for you when you mess up?"

"Oh come on Prongs. I can't do this myself," Sirius said.

"That's just the point. You're supposed to be doing this yourself!" James said.

"Prongs! I've always been there for you! Remember all those times when we were in trouble? I was right there with you!"

"You were in trouble too! You had to be there!" 

Sirius sighed and then remembered one time, a long time ago, that they had never spoken of since they were little kids. "Do you remember when we were just five years old? The bully of the block? Remember him? One time, when me and you and Remus were out playing that one game where we pretended we were big wizards fighting dragons and evil wizards, you told us that you had that dream to defeat the most powerful evil wizard in the Wizarding World? The bully heard you and started laughing. Then you started to cry? Do you remember that?" Sirius asked.

James stared at him. He hadn't thought that Sirius remembered something like that. "Yes, I remember. You went over and gave him a bloody nose, telling him that I could do anything I wanted to do when I grew up and that if I wanted to defeat a powerful evil wizard, you'd be right there helping me. You still remember that?"

Sirius nodded. "So will you help me now? Please?"

James sighed, running his hands through his messy black hair. "Yes, I'll help you. But this time, listen more closely. Gawd that was embarrassing, and I was just watching it!" (A/N-Oh my gosh! I thought that that was the sweetest thing in the world! I actually started tearing up! I'm so serious! It was just so sweet! Just imagine little Jamesie crying because his dream gets squashed and then little Sirius goes over and stands up for him…Awww!!)

As soon as Lily entered the common room, Marissa came running up to her excitedly. "Well?" Marissa asked.

"Well what?" Lily said, taking a seat at one of the tables. She loved doing this to Rissa. Her friend was always eager for any juicy news.

"Well WHAT? You know what! Who was it?" Marissa asked, leaning forward in her chair.

"Okay, I'll tell you. Do you know…" Lily looked around secretively. 

"Yes? Know who?" Marissa breathed.

"Do you know the Muffin Man?" Lily asked.

"The Muffin Man?" Marissa asked, crossing her arms angrily.

"The Muffin Man," Lily repeated.

"The Muffin Man?" Marissa asked again.

"The MUFFIN MAN!" Lily shouted, making everyone turn her way. "And besides, you were supposed to say 'Who lives on Drury Lane?'"

"Lilllllyyy!" Marissa urged. "Tell me! Who wrote you the letter? I could have spied on you or eavesdropped to find out who it was since my curiosity was killing me and driving me crazy, but I didn't! I was a good little girl and decided to give you your privacy. Now tell me before I just pass out and fall to the floor, twitching because my curiosity is killing me!"

"SiriusBlack," Lily mumbled softly, slurring the name together.

"Who?" Marissa asked, leaning forward to hear better.

"SiriusBlack," Lily mumbled again.

"I can't hear you!" Marissa complained.

"Sirius Black!" Lily hissed.

Marissa gasped. "What? No, he couldn't have written something like that! That was the guy who, just yesterday at breakfast, had a burping contest with his friends! That is the guy who stuck a pin into Bobbie Mckibbin's butt. AND that is the same guy who turned Carlise, Marly, and Alyssiane's hair neon green and spread orange junk all over their faces. Okay…Are we talking about the same Sirius Black here?" Marissa asked suspiciously.

"How many Sirius Black's do you know Rissa?" Lily asked her.

"Well?" Marissa asked again.

"Well what?" Lily asked, sighing.

"How was it? What happened?" Marissa said, raising her eyebrows suggestively (A/N-I know I use suggestively a lot, but how else am I supposed to put it?). 

"Nothing happened. We just talked," Lily said.

Marissa gasped again. "Nothing happened? You just talked? The whole time? Now we must be talking about two different people."

"Nope," Lily said, laughing. "I'm positive it was Sirius."

"Was he drunk do you think?" Marissa asked curiously.

"No," Lily said, laughing even harder. "He wasn't drunk, I'm sure of it. I _can _tell when someone's drunk you know."

Marissa still looked skeptical, left it at that. "So what was it like?" she asked, leaning forward eagerly.

"It was…a little weird at first. I mean, I never expected anything like that from Sirius you know? He was so sweet and romantic and…well you read the letter. He said that 'when you feel so strongly about someone, it brings out different sides to people.'" Lily told her, remembering what he had said when she had told him that she hadn't thought that he could write such a letter.

"What?" Marissa asked incredulously. "He said all that?"

"Well," Lily said, "he actually said slides the first time, not sides, and then got all weird about it."

"Weird about it?" Marissa asked, raising an eyebrow questioningly.

"Well, I think he started calling himself a twit, but I wasn't really sure at first," Lily said, remembering him shouting "Sides, not slides you twit!"

"Hmm, maybe he was just nervous?" Marissa supplied.

"I think he must have been really nervous, because he did that a lot," Lily said. "I'm meeting him again tomorrow in the gardens."

"Ooh…" Marissa said. "Can I eavesdrop this time?"

"Absolutely…" Lily said and Marissa's countenance lit up. "Not," Lily added. Marissa's smile dropped.

"Oh why not? You won't even know I'm there!" Marissa complained.

"Yes I will!" Lily pointed out. "Now can I have a little bit of peace here? I have a history of magic report to write to you know!"

Marissa sighed and grumbled for a bit, but got back to work on her paper.

            Lily looked over around the common room and saw James and Remus enter the common room and immediately, a group of giggling girls flocked around them. Lily walked over there and cleared her throat. "Ahh, James? Could I talk to you for a minute?"

"Ahhm, well sure Lily," James said, a bit confused. Why would she want to talk to him?

Lily cleared her throat again and eyed Remus and the giggling girls. "Alone maybe?"

"Oh, right," James said, taking a seat a bit away from Remus and the group of giggling girls, who all watched James leave out of the corner of their eyes. "So, shoot."

"Ahh, well. This might sound really silly, but…" Lily began awkwardly. "Could you write a letter to Sirius?"

James furrowed his brow in confusion. "I really don't need to write him a letter. I can talk to him anyti-" James began, but then realized what she was asking. "Wha? Why? Why do you want me to write a letter to Sirius for you? You're a great writer Lily."

Lily blushed. "I know, but you know a lot more about him than I do so you know. You could write it so that he'd like it. His words were so beautiful. I could never write like that!"

James ran his hand through his hair in frustration, something he found himself doing often these days. "Weelllll…"

"Oh please James? Just one? It'd mean so much to me."

James looked at her. Her green emerald eyes looked pleading and hopeful. How could he turn Lily down? He couldn't. "Alright." (A/N- Almost James/Lilyness! Sort of anyway…)

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" Lily said, giving him a hug and then heading back to Marissa. 

James ran his hand through his hair once more, asking himself how he had gotten himself into this mess for the millionth time that day.

"I got a letter from Lily!" Sirius said in a singsong voice to James and Remus as they walked together to the herbology greenhouse. 

"Oh really?" James asked, not really surprised at all, for obvious reasons, one being that he wrote it.

"Really? Let me read it," Remus said, taking it from Sirius and skimming over it. Remus glanced over at James but said nothing. 

"Yeah, it's all kinda mushy and boring. Sweet to make your teeth hurt, but it's the thought that counts right?" Sirius asked them cheerfully.

"What? It's very well written!" James said, indignant.

"You haven't even read it James," Remus said.

"Yeah. But it's from Lily and she's a great writer! I'm sure it's well written," James said awkwardly, trying to salvage himself from the wreck he had made of this situation.

Remus shrugged and handed it back to Sirius. "He's right Sirius. It's very nicely done."

"Thank you," James said but added hurriedly when Remus looked over at him again, "I mean, I'm sure Lily thanks you Moony."

Luckily they had reached the greenhouses so James didn't have to answer any further questions from Remus. He had already almost given everything away. They walked in a sat behind Lily and Marissa.  

"Now, these Malkets (A/N-I just made up a plant.) get very grumpy when woken up or interrupted during a meal," Professor Spring, the herbology teacher said. She was a squat, cheerful teacher with wispy gray hair that stuck out everywhere.

"Reminds me of James," Sirius remarked, causing the class to chuckle softly. James caught his eye, giving him a small wink that wouldn't have even been noticed by someone who wasn't looking for it or expecting it. Sirius winked back and nodded slightly.

"And they are not the most attractive plants you'll ever see," Professor Spring added, ignoring Sirius's comment.

"If you ask me, the description's starting to fit Sirius a bit more," James said.

Lily hid her laughing with coughs.

"Yeah well, no one was asking you were they?" Sirius shot back actually sounding angry.

James stood up. "Well maybe I just decided to ask myself! Is there some sort of a problem with that?" James said, giving Sirius a shove.

By now there were murmurs of astonishment going throughout the classroom. None of the Marauders ever got into fights, well not with each other anyway. But here James was, shoving one of his best friends, who shoved him back. They both grabbed out their wands and shot a spell at each other. James ducked and the spell hit the huge pot of Malkets, causing them to explode and pieces of Malket to shower on the people sitting in range. Unfortunately, both Lily and Marissa happened to be in range, and were now covered with a disgusting, extremely unattractive and smelly green glop. James and Sirius burst out laughing and gave each other a high five. The class started laughing, some of them relieved. Who knows what a fight between the Marauders could have meant for them, but it was all a sham to pull off a prank anyway.

"Detention for the rest of the week!" Professor Spring shouted, pointing at Sirius and James. "And a five parchment essay about Malkets!"

Sirius nudged James lightly with an elbow, prodding him forward. 

"Oh, right," James whispered softly. "We really are very sorry professor. We always liked to think of you as the professor with the best sense of humor. We thought that this would make you laugh. Apparently we were-"

"I do have good sense of humor don't I? Come to think of it, it was rather entertaining, and it is not as if I'll run short on Malkets any time soon. And now that I really think about it, five pages does seem a bit much. A two page essay then, and forget about the detention altogether. No harm done at all," Professor Spring said, waving her hands, dismissing the detention.                 

James smiled that dazzling, charming smile that made half the girls in the class melt and said, "I always knew you loved a good laugh professor."

"How do you guys do it _every _time?" Lily whispered as they sat back down. 

James shrugged as if it was nothing. "It's not too hard. Flattery works well with the female teachers. With the potions master, nothing works, so we don't do it _all_ of the time, just when we can."

Remus sighed, shaking his head amusedly. "Ahh, the magic of words."

James looked at Lily and Marissa. "Sorry, did we get you?"

"Just a little," Lily said, laughing softly.

"But it's nothing really," Lily and Marissa assured them, brushing it aside.

Sirius frowned. "Yeah sorry. We should've realized the Malkets would go flying after an explosion like that. Note for future reference Prongs, cause explosions farther away."

James nodded. "Good idea. Looks like we got all the front row," he said, looking around at the students in the classroom, surveying the state of the mess. "Not too bad though. Last time, we got the first three rows covered in Bubbotuber (A/N-Was that what it was called? I don't remember…Ahh, close enough…) puss. Now that was pretty bad, not to mention really very disgusting."

Lily laughed. "I remember that. Luckily Professor Bines had me stay later after class to talk about a paper so I was late coming to class. When I got here, only a seat in the back of the room was vacant."

Marissa scowled. "You were lucky. It took me forever to get that junk out of my hair."

"Class is dismissed," Professor Spring announced, and everyone hurriedly grabbed their things and left the greenhouse.

"You're still meeting me in the gardens later right?" Sirius whispered in Lily's ear as she packed up her things.

"I'll see you there," Lily said, smiling.

~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~

A/N- Ohhh, wow, trick-or-treaters! ***Peaks out of the window*** AHHH!! The clowns are coming for me!! Yeah well, that end part was pretty pointless to the story, but I'm trying to fit in how Lily and Marissa and the Marauders are becoming friends and whatever. So they're all just one big happy……group of friends…Anyway, there's going to be a lot of this whole Lily-becoming-friends-with-the-Marauders stuff so then later, Sirius…Well, I don't think I'll tell you…Anyway, leave a review please! And then maybe I'll be motivated to post another chapter tomorrow…If I have time…I might…I actually think I will have time to post a new chapter…Anyway, review!


	5. Thorns, Lucius Malfoy, A Special Sweater...

            A/N-La dee da…Anyway, here is the next chapter! I'm glad you people like this. It's really fun to write. I think it's really funny…This next chapter is the next meeting or Sirius and Lily…and James too of course…I hope you guys enjoy!

            Disclaimer-Honestly, if you do not know by now that I do not own any of this stuff, except Marissa, Professor Meeny, whom I don't think shows up in this chapter, Filth, whom I don't think shows up in this chapter either, Professor Spring, who was in the last chapter, not this one, and I think that's it, then you need a new brain. I own the characters I had to make up but that's it. Guess who the other stuff belongs to! Guess! No, not the CIA. Come on, why would they own that stuff? Flying monkeys do not own the stuff either. J.K. Rowling owns that stuff! 

            Thank you-

ChaCha-Thank you for reading my fic, and reviewing! Is this really the funniest fic you've ever read? I think you need to read more comedy fics…But oh well, if you think this is the funniest fic you've ever read, I'm certainly not going to convince you otherwise! Yeah! I watched that episode of Smart Guy! After watching that, watching Roxanne, and reading Cyrano de Bergerac, I got this idea! So my idea came from that partially. I'm sure other people recognize this plot too then, they're just not saying anything…

LilyFlower8602-You reviewed again! Yes, I agree poor Sirius, but I feel worse for James really. Yup, so pretty much, James is writing letters from himself, and then writing back to himself…Wait, that's not right…He's writing letters to Lily, and then he's writing back to himself…Wait, that's not right either…Well, you know what I mean, at least I think you do…

REESY-Hee, hee, I'd love to kill Peter! DIE PETER DIE! DIE I SAY DIE!! But unfortunately, I can't. Well I could, but it'd like destroy the real Harry Potter books. Grr…I hate Peter…He doesn't show up in this chapter I don't think. He's not in this fic very much at all, just the way I like it. Although I sort of wonder what he's off doing…Probably kissing up to Voldemort or something…Polishing his shoes…Alphabetizing his brick collection…

                        Shree-And you reviewed again too! Yay! Yes it is sweet, but Sirius isn't the one who's sweet, James is! 

            Walking Contradiction-Thanks for complementing on my story! I try very hard to have no grammatical errors and having the plot flow nicely. I also make sure I keep the character's personalities true to the way they started. If I didn't, where would the challenge in writing be?

kristatwen-I think I remember reading your fic. I think I left a review too…I don't quite remember…I'll check that later. I'd be happy to read your fic…If I didn't already…I'm glad you thought that was funny. I thought it was funny too. I was cracking up when I was typing that last chapter.

Draco-n-Hermione-4ever-Is it really like your story? Darn, I thought it was pretty original…Oh well…I'm glad you like it anyway and thanks for reviewing!

*******************

"Ow!" James cursed loudly. "There are thorns in this bush!" James shouted, coming out from his hiding place within the bush, this time, with numerous scrapes and scratches.

Sirius, from his place on the bench in the gardens, chuckled softly.

"Ahh, I have a better idea anyway," James said, pulling out a cloak of silvery, fluid-like material-his Invisibility Cloak-from his bag and pulled it on and then…was invisible. "Now remember to listen closely this time. Last time was a disaster."

"Tell me about it," Sirius muttered. "Absolutely horrible."

"And remem-" James began, but was interrupted by Lucius's voice.

"POTTER!" Lucius shouted, his voice echoing through the gardens.

"Bloody Hell," James muttered. "What now? He's a certain talent for interrupting in most inopportune times. I swear he must practice that."

"POTTER! I know that you and your weasel, crooked lackies did this! And I know you're out here somewhere!" Lucius shouted from the other side of the gardens.

James looked puzzled and thought for a moment. "I didn't even do anything…well, not THIS time anyway." Then he thought a bit longer. "Ohhh…heh heh. Me and Moony sort of snuck a Dung Bomb into his bookbag. Bet the girls all shied off of him for a long while. Probably literally got off of him."

"Did he just call us crooked?" Sirius murmured. "And what do you mean you and Moony. Where was I?"

"Walking Lily to her next class," James said.

"Oh, right," Sirius said.

"I'll be right back."

"Wait, but she's coming any minute now!" Sirius protested.

"I'll just be right back. How long could this take?" James said, hurrying down the garden path towards the sound of Lucius cursing and calling James and his "crooked lackies" every insulting name in the English and wizarding language, leaving Sirius to pace nervously. As James got closer to Lucius, he remembered that he still had his Invisibility Cloak on. James grinned mischievously. Time for some fun…

Just as Lucius was turning the corner, James stuck out his leg, sending Lucius falling forward and landing, sprawled over the path, a tangled bundle of black robes. He quickly stood up and looked around angrily. His eyes narrowed as he looked around him. 

James took this opportunity to tie his shoelaces together. He knew it was the oldest trick in the book, and very childish, but it was very effective. As soon as Lucius tried to take a step, he tripped and fell down upon the pathway for the second time. Malfoy glanced down at his shoes and his eyes narrowed again.

"Potter," Lucius muttered. "Show yourself Potter!" When James did not appear, he said, "Fine. Suit yourself." Then Malfoy began shooting curses everywhere.

James swore under his breath, trying to dodge all of the curses and run at the same time. He searched his pockets for his wand, but it wasn't there.

*

"Where is he?" Sirius muttered to himself. Then he saw something on the ground. Sirius bent and picked it up, seeing that it was James's wand. He was just about to go find James when he saw Lily coming up the path. Sirius cursed under his breath. He thought about hiding and then going to find James, but she had already spotted him.

*

As James searched his pockets only to find his wand missing, a body-binding curse hit him in the back. James fell upon the path, stiff as a board. 

Lucius looked around, listening for any noises and then took a cautious step forward to make sure he wasn't tripped again.

"If you are still here, you are in a body-binding curse," Lucius said slowly.

James rolled his eyes, about the only thing he could move. He had already figured out a long time ago that he was in a full body-bind. Just like Lucius to state such an obvious thing.

"And you are invisible. I don't think I'll be seeing you for a long while. Good luck Potter. Hope you don't get stepped on but maybe getting stepped on would be a good thing, considering that if no one does, they won't know where you are," Lucius said, laughing as he walked back into the building.

*

"U-um, hello Lily," Sirius said awkwardly as she came nearer.

"Hello," Lily said, taking a seat on the bench.

Sirius sat as well, and then just sat there. He figured the less he said, the better.

"So," Lily said slowly. 

"Did you notice that Lucius smelled bad later today?" Sirius asked, recalling why James wasn't here.

Lily wrinkled her nose as if remembering the smell but then chuckled a bit. "Yeah, Kiely was going to meet him up in the Astronomy Tower later, but she broke it off after Transfiguration. She said she had to work on an essay for her Care of Magical Creatures class, which was an extremely stupid thing to say since Lucius has Care of Magical Creatures class with her and he knows there is no essay due tomorrow. I would not want to be Remus and James right now. I just hope they hide very well."

"How'd you know it was them?" Sirius asked. 

"James told me," Lily said.

Just then, Remus came walking up the stone path. "Sirius, I need the-" and then catching sight of Lily, he cut off. "Hello Lily. Umm, Sirius, I need a blank piece of parchment now."

Sirius just blinked. "I don't carry around blank pieces of parchment Remus. Sorry buddy, but I really don't."

"No, I need a BLANK piece of PARCHMENT that I KNOW you CARRY around with you. You HAVE it RIGHT now. JAMES is missing and I would like to leave him a note to read later. He is MISSING and I think he is WEARING his SPECIAL…sweater," Remus said, emphasizing a few key words and glancing meaningfully at Sirius.

Comprehension dawned on Sirius. "Oh, OH! Okay, yeah. Umm Lily, I'm going to go talk to Remus for a minute okay?"

"Sure," Lily said slowly, very confused. Were they speaking in some sort of code? It was a really good code. It was enough to send anyone into mass confusion.

Sirius pulled Remus a little ways away and spoke quietly with him. "I known James is wearing his Invisibility Cloak. He put it on so he wouldn't have to hide in the bushes this time when Lily came. He left when Lucius Malfoy shouted for him, obviously very angry. He hasn't come back yet. Do you think Lucius did something to him?"

"It was about the Dung Bomb wasn't it?" Remus asked. Sirius nodded. "Naw, I don't think Lucius could do anything to Prongs. He's by far the better dueler when it comes to him and Lucius."

Sirius cursed loudly, causing Lily to glance over at them curiously.

"Moony, Prongs doesn't have his wand. He must have dropped it. I found it over by the bench," Sirius said, pulling James's wand from his pocket.

Remus cursed as well. "You have the map. Let's find him."

"Okay, hold on," Sirius said, walking back over to where Lily was sitting.

"Is everything alright?" she asked, looking concerned.

"Everything's fine," Sirius assured her. "But I just remembered, I have detention today so I have to go. Oh, by the way, did you happen to see James as you were walking out here?"

Lily thought for a moment. "Actually, I haven't seen him since the end of classes…Is he alright?"

"He's fine," Sirius said hurriedly. "I'll talk to you later?"

"Sure."  

Sirius kissed her on the cheek and then they both hurried off in the direction that James had gone, Remus holding a blank piece of parchment in front of him.

Lily frowned, watching them leave. Sirius didn't have detention today, she was sure of it, so something must have been wrong. She knew it was wrong to follow but she cast manners to the wind and followed them, a safe distance behind them.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," she heard Remus say, tapping the parchment with his wand. Since Lily was a bit behind them, all she could make out were some faint lines and some dots appear on the parchment. She did notice that the dots moved though.

"Look, there he is," Sirius said, pointing to a dot on the map. And then they turned the corner.

When Lily cautiously peeked around the corner, she saw Sirius prodding the ground tentatively with his feet and Remus on his hands and knees, feeling the ground around him.

"Oof," Lily heard someone mutter. "Sirius that hurt. Quit kicking!" 

"James! Remus I found him," Sirius said, kneeling down on the path and looking at…well nothing that Lily could see. Sirius then started grabbing at the air in front of him and pulled a silvery cloak out of nowhere, revealing James in a full body-binding curse.

"James you idiot! You dropped your wand! You're lucky you only got a body-binding curse considering it was Malfoy," Sirius said, pulling James's wand from his pocket.

"I know I know," James muttered. "Just take it off of me!"

"Oh right," Remus murmured, using his wand to lift the curse.

"Thanks guys. The idiot…All I did was trip him a few times and he shoots curse around everywhere. He's lucky I didn't have my wand, other wise that bumbling fool would have gotten it…Now what's our plan for revenge? I was thinking that we could put a curse on him that makes him think he's a horse," James said, taking his cloak from Sirius and putting into his bag. He then got up and brushed himself off.

Remus chuckled. "Now _that _would be very amusing."

Sirius grinned mischievously. "Or better yet, make him think he's a donkey."

They all chuckled at that.

"A cow," Remus suggested.

"A pig," James put in.

"Well, what ever it is, it'll be big. No one puts a curse on our buddy and gets away with it," Sirius declared. Then they all headed into the castle, still making plans for their revenge.

Lily smiled, also heading in. She had never seen a group of better or closer friends than the Marauders. It touched Lily really, that they were so close and that they were always there for each other no matter what. Kind of like her and Marissa, Lily thought to herself. She decided to go find her friend. 

*&**&**&**&**&**&**&**&**&**&**&**&**&*

A/N-I thought it was hilarious when Remus was talking in "code." I was cracking up as I wrote that…Hee, anyway now leave a nice review, or a mean one, depending on how you felt about the chapter…But I hope mean isn't the case…I should have time to update soon, so leave a review! Grrr…Blame the English papers…And Cleon too…Can't forget him…Don't ask, I'm babbling on now…


	6. Snape and Lucius: Cat and MouseLiterally...

A/N-Lalalaaa! Oh yeah, anyway, here is the next chapter! Sorry it wasn't up sooner, I've been so busy. Grr…I hate English essays and math tests and math homework and math in general. Grr…Math should burn…The people who came up with all of this math junk when we were just fine making tick marks on stone tablets are probably up in heaven or down in hell just watching me and laughing their heads off and congratulating themselves on their ability to send me into mass confusion…Anyway, that's beside the point now. This chapter is pretty much full of Marauders-and-Lily-becoming-friends stuff.

Thank you all of my reviewers! I don't have the time to do individual thank yous right now so I'll try to do that in the next chapter. 

Disclaimer-I don't own this. J.K. Rowling does. No really, I don't own this! I'm serious! Fine then, don't believe me, that's not my problem… 

*

Later that night, James was just walking out of the boys' dormitories when he spotted Lily in one of the squashy armchairs in the common room, reminding him that he had neglected to ask Sirius how their meeting earlier today went without him their. James groaned. He hoped Sirius didn't do anything stupid. At least if he did, James wouldn't have to keep helping him. This mess was getting really tangled up and James kind of wanted out of it really. James couldn't see Sirius so he decided to ask Lily about it.

"Hey Lils," He said, plopping down in an armchair beside her.

"Hi James," Lily said, barely glancing up from the book she was reading. 

"Hello James," two girls said flirtatiously and giggling.

"Ladies," he said smoothly, nodding in their direction, which caused them to bat their eyelashes and giggle even more. 

"So Lily…" James said slowly. "How did your meeting with Sirius go earlier?"

            The girls walked off, looking a bit dejected that he didn't want to flirt with them some more and was more interested in Lily.  

This time Lily glanced up. "Well it was cut a bit short. He hurried off when Remus told Sirius that he needed a blank piece of parchment because you were gone and they thought you were wearing your special…sweater," she said, saying it exactly as Remus had, emphasizing the same words he had, and peering at James expectantly.

James glanced up at her, startled. "Oh?"

"Do you solemnly swear that you are up to no good James?" she asked, returning to her book.

"You heard?" 

"Yes, so what is it? The blank piece of parchment that has lines and moving dots on it when you say those words?" Lily asked him. 

James grabbed the piece of blank parchment from his robe pocket. He spread it on the table in front of them, and, after first making sure no one was nearby, said, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

The lines and the moving dots appeared. This time, she noticed the names above the dots and she also noticed that the lines were hallways and corridors and rooms. Lily gasped.

"It's a map," Lily stated absently.

"Yes it is. It has all of the secret passageways that we've found thus far. It also has where everyone is and especially where all of the teachers are," James said, and, pointing to some dots on the map, said, "See? There's Filth and there's Dumbledore. And Professor Spring is out in greenhouse three."

"Why are some dots colored?" Lily asked, seeing that the Prongs, Padfoot, Wormtail, Moony, and Lily dots were in color.

"Anyone who knows about this map, how it works and everything are in color. You know about the map now, so you are colored. You're green," James pointed out, glancing up and looking at her emerald green eyes. 

When their eyes locked, Lily felt a shiver run through her, not the kind you get when you're cold, more like the kind you get when you just faintly begin to realize something and new emotions are welling up inside you. Of course she wasn't aware of what these emotions were, just that he had such deep blue eyes…(A/N-I'm not sure if they're blue or not. I don't think it ever says. Some people gave him blue eyes and some gave him brown so I just picked blue because I felt like it…) Soon though, he was looking at the map again.

"So there's where Sirius got to," James said, tapping the map where a dot marked Padfoot was.

"Who's Wormtail?" Lily asked. She knew that Sirius was Padfoot, Remus was Moony, and that James was Prongs because every once in awhile they would call each other that, but she had never heard them use Wormtail.

"That's Peter," James answered.

Ahh, of course, Lily thought. She had forgotten about him. Now that she had the chance to ask though…

"Why does Peter hang out with you guys? You guys are popular and charming and handsome," Lily said, blushing slightly, "but Peter is none of those things.

"He's a friend of my family. His mom works with my mom. He hangs out with us as a favor for a friend of the family I suppose," James said, shrugging. "It's not too bad. He doesn't say or do much anyway." (A/N-I'm not sure if that's the reason they hang out with him, but I had to make up something. Sounds good enough anyway…)

"So which have you guys decided on? A cow, a pig, a donkey, or a horse?" Lily asked, smiling when James gave her a surprised look.

Then his look changed to that of an accusation and his eyes narrowed. "You followed them. You know about my Invisibility Cloak as well then." 

Lily nodded. 

James smiled. "We haven't decided yet. I like the idea of a cow."

"I would like to see him acting like a chicken perhaps, or a monkey," Lily said thoughtfully. Then she grinned mischievously. "How about Lucius a cat and Snape a mouse?"

James imagined that idea for a moment and then broke into a grin. "I like the way you think, Lily." With that he said good-bye and went looking for Sirius and Remus to tell them the new plan.

Lily smiled, imagining Snape and Malfoy and reminded herself to be sure to bring a camera to breakfast tomorrow.

*

"Morning Rissa," Lily said, taking a seat beside her friend in the Great Hall. Marissa was sitting beside her new boyfriend. Lily didn't even know his name. It was breakfast time and Lily had remembered to bring a camera. It was a wizarding camera too, so the picture would move when it was developed. Rissa glanced at the camera questioningly.

"Is there some reason you're going to be needing that?" Rissa asked, arching an eyebrow.

"It's a surprise. You'll see soon enough," Lily assured her, grabbing a waffle.

"Oh, this is Bobbie Michaels," Marissa said, indicating the boy sitting on the other side of her. "You remember him right? He's a Ravenclaw."

Yes, Lily recognized him now. He was a chaser on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team.

It wasn't five seconds later when Lucius came slinking into the Great Hall on all fours, as graceful and fluid-like as any cat. He slinked over to a group of standing girls nearby and rubbed up against their legs, purring. Lily snapped a picture. Rissa sat beside her, eyes wide and shoulders shaking with silent laughter. 

"How do you like your idea put into action so far?" James asked Lily quietly as he and the rest of the Marauders sat around her.

Lily was barely containing her laughter. The girls ran off shrieking "Eww ewww!"

"Where's Snape?" Lily whispered to James, who nodded towards the doors. Lily looked over there. Snape was just scurrying in through the doors after the girls had opened them, making squeaking noises. Still scurrying on all fours, he climbed up to a table, grabbing a piece of cheese. Lily took this opportunity to snap another picture. When Lucius saw him, he arched his back, hissing. And then he stealthily made towards Snape, crawling close to the ground. Lily snapped another photo. Everyone else in the Great Hall was pointing and laughing. Lily glanced over at the Marauders. They were all laughing so hard there were tears in their eyes and Remus was pounding on the table.

Lucius was right behind Snape now. Snape, hearing Lucius behind him, pricked up his ears and paused with the consumption of his cheese. Lucius took this opportunity to grab the back of Snape's neck in his teeth. Lily snapped photos like crazy as Snape made pitiful squeaking and squealing noises while Lucius dragged him towards the doors. The Potions Master, Professor Meeny showed up to see what was going on then. His eyes narrowed as he saw Snape and Malfoy and then he looked around the room, his eyes resting on the Marauders.

"Potter! Black! Lupin! In my office, NOW!!" Professor Meeny yelled, looking extremely angry. Indeed, his face was so red it looked near explosion.

As Lily watched the Marauders head over to the doors, Lily felt a twinge of guilt. It was her idea to make Severus a mouse and Lucius a cat. She knew that they were going to change at least Lucius into something anyway, but it wouldn't have been as disastrous if they had just turned him into a cow or a donkey like they had originally planned, so it was partially her fault that Lucius was now dragging Snape away by the nape of his neck.

Stuffing her camera back into her bookbag, she got up and headed towards the Meeny. "Professor," Lily said. "It was my idea. It was my fault."

Some of the students who had been laughing fell silent at this. Lily hadn't ever gotten into much trouble. Every once in a while she was late to class or was found running in the halls, but never this much trouble.

"Evans?" Professor Meeny said, apparently surprised.

"No, she didn't do anything Professor," James told him. (A/N-Awww, isn't that sweet? He's trying to get her out of it! I thought it was sweet anyway…)

"Yeah, she really had nothing to do with it," Sirius said.

"It was all our idea," Remus added.

"It was my idea Professor," Lily repeated.

"Well then. Evans in my office as well," the Professor said, turning to head towards his office.

"No, it was my idea so they shouldn't be-" Lily began to protest.

"Shh. Don't get him angrier, he'll just make our punishment worse," James whispered.

Lily sighed in resignation. She had tried anyway. 

They all took seats in Professor Meeny's office as he sat in the chair behind the desk.

"I suppose you all thought that was funny hmm?" Meeny said.

"Well actually-" James began but Lily stepped on his foot. "Ow."

"Now you're just making it worse," Lily whispered.

"Professor," Remus said. "Aside from Lily, who has already confessed her part in this scheme, you have no proof whatsoever that we were involved in this at all."

"Your well-known reputation is proof enough," Meeny said, writing some things down on a piece of parchment in front of him.

"But if-" Lily began to protest, but this time James stepped on her foot. 

When Lily looked over at him, he smiled. "Now you're just making it worse," he pointed out.

"Detentions for a week for all of you," Meeny said (A/N-Don't ya love the name? Meeny! I thought that was great.). "Polishing the trophies in the trophy room, starting today after classes are over."

"Ahh well. It was worth it just to hear Snape squeak like that," Sirius said, sighing wistfully after they left Meeny's office and were heading for their first class.  

"Ooh, ooh!" Lily said, squealing a bit. She reached into her bookbag and pulled out her camera. "I got pictures!"

The Marauders' faces broke into huge grins.

"If we are the kings of pranks and jokes, then you are the queen," James said, laughing.

"I pledge my allegiance to you, your highness," Remus said, bowing.

"You are so getting a double copies of those pictures," Sirius said. And then wistfully, "Ahh, just imagine the blackmail possibilities…"

They entered the herbology classroom to find that class had already started.

"Is there a reason you boys," Professor Spring began, and then, seeing Lily, added, "and girl are late?"

"Yes there's a reason. It might not be a good one, but it's a reason," James said, taking a seat. The class chuckled. 

*

"Do you want to go to the library with me? I have an essay to do and I need to do some research," Marissa asked Lily. Lily and Marissa sat in the Gryffindor common room. Classes just got over for the day.

"Sorry. I'd love to, but I can't," Lily said. When Marissa arched an eyebrow, Lily reminded her about the detention she had.

"You are so lucky," Marissa sighed.

"What?" Lily asked incredulously. "I said detention! Did you hear me correctly? Because I seriously think you heard me wrong."

"Yes I did, but just think about who you have detention with!" Rissa said.

"The Marauders? They are really great. They're very fun to be with," Lily said.

"They are also the most popular boys in school and they are so hot. Besides Peter, but he doesn't really count anyway," Marissa said. (A/N-Ha ha! Die Peter, die!! Sorry for interrupting…)

Lily rolled her eyes. "Is that all you think about? They're my friends. That's all."

"Except maybe Sirius…" Marissa said slyly, causing Lily to blush a deep scarlet.

"I have to go to my detention," Lily muttered, getting up and leaving the common room. When she got there, the Marauders weren't there yet. Meeny wasn't even there yet, so she took this opportunity to look at all of the trophies. Most of them were all for Quidditch, which reminded her that the Quidditch season started in three weeks.  

She jumped when someone slipped their arms around her waist, but relaxed when she recognized the voice.

"Hello Lily," Sirius whispered, kissing her cheek.

"Come on now Sirius. This is detention, not a snog fest," Remus said good-naturedly.

"Now, you will polish all of these trophies over this week," Meeny said, walking in briskly. "If you get done polishing all of these to my satisfaction before the week is over, which I highly doubt, I shall find something else for you to do. Now get to work. I shall be back to check up on you soon." With that, he left, his black robes swishing behind him.

They each grabbed a wet polishing cloth and got to work. Meeny was right, Lily saw. There were so man trophies that she wondered what Meeny would do if they didn't get all of the trophies polished by the end of their detention. He'd probably make them have detention until they were all sparkling like new. 

"You didn't have to say anything you know," James said suddenly.

"Hmm? Yes I did," Lily said. "It _was _my idea after all."

"But we had the original plan anyway," James said.

"But you have to admit, it wouldn't have been half as disastrous if you had just turned Lucius into a cow or a donkey like you had planned originally. But I gave you the idea of having Lucius act as a cat and Snape a mouse," Lily pointed out.

"But still…And are you saying our plan wasn't disastrous in the first place?" James asked.

"Maybe," Lily said slyly. "Besides, I couldn't just let you guys take the credit for my brilliant idea," Lily said.

Remus and Sirius chuckled.

"Touché (A/N-Grrrr…At first I couldn't figure out how to put the little accent thingy on touché because the first time it didn't show up. It was beginning to make me mad really.)," James said, chuckling as well. 

"We are going to be here forever," Remus said, looking around the room.

"It could be worse," Sirius said cheerfully.

"How?" Remus asked. 

"Umm…We could have detention with Malfoy or Snape," Sirius told Remus.

"That would be worse? I think it would be kind of fun," Remus said. "We could always use a few laughs. We could change him into a monkey or something. That would make this better, not worse."

"Okay then…we could be outside and it could be raining," Sirius said.

"That would be worse," Remus agreed.

"No, you know what would be worse?" Lily asked them.

"No, what?" the Marauders all said together.

"It would be worse if Meeny had decided to stay," Lily told them.

They all thought about that for a moment. If Meeny had stayed, he'd sit there and snap at them all to polish the trophy this way, not that way. Or he'd just snap that they were doing it wrong and just let them figure out what they were doing wrong. It would be a nightmare if he had decided to say.

"Thank God he almost has a life and has to go do something," Remus said, sighing.

"You mean thank God he thinks he has a life," Lily corrected him.

"If he was here, we'd really be here forever," James said, polishing a trophy for what seemed like the millionth time. He then turned to whisper to Remus, who started laughing.

Lily glanced over at them and they both started coughing, though Lily heard the laughs behind the coughs. James nudged Sirius, who turned to look and tried to frown when he saw Lily but the frown twitched on the sides like he was keeping laughter in. Lily raised an eyebrow and turned back to the trophy she had been polishing. She looked at it to see if it was polished well enough but then yelped when she saw her reflection. She steadied herself to keep from falling off of the stool she was standing on. She glanced at her reflection again. Yup, she had seen right the first time. She had hair that looked exactly like Meeny's. She had frizzy gray hair, just like Meeny.

She turned around to see them all cracking up. Lily smiled. "I think it's rather becoming," she said primly, fluffing her new Meeny hair.

"You look great Lily," James said, still laughing.

"Which is more than I can say for the three of you," Lily said, turning her hair back to her normal auburn color, while shooting a spell at their hair.

The Marauders looked at each other, eyebrows arched quizzically. When they looked at each other though, they jumped.

"Sirius, you're hair looks really nasty and greasy. Oh man, that's just disgusting," James said, wrinkling his nose.

"My hair? What about yours?" Sirius asked, looking at James's hair.

"Both of you have nasty hair," Remus said.

"Us? What about you?" Sirius asked, pointing to his hair.

Lily laughed as all three boys turned to look at their reflections in a trophy. All three jumped back, agreeing that their hair was nasty.

"You guys really need to stop sharing shampoo with Snape, you know," Lily said, finally done polishing one trophy. She leaned back to examine her work. Detention wasn't as bad as she first believed it would be. It would've probably been really bad if she had had detention with anyone but the Marauders, but they made detention fun. Maybe that's why they were always getting into trouble.

"Let's get her," James said, and they all lunged for Lily and tackled her, all of them ending up in a great heap, Lily on the bottom.

"Students are not supposed to enjoy detention you know," a friendly voice remarked from the doorway.

Everyone quickly stood up. 

"Sorry Professor Dumbledore, we were just…umm…" Remus began. "Well, what were we doing guys?"

Sirius and James shrugged.

"I was just walking by this room and I was hearing a lot of noise and laughter and then I remembered that the Marauders and Lily had detention in here. I decided to come and see for myself what could possibly so fun about detention," Dumbledore said, turning to leave. "By the way, I like what you boys did with your hair." He then left, chuckling to himself.

Sirius, James, and Remus looked at each other curiously. They had already returned their hair back to normal. But when they looked at each other, they all jumped and yelped. 

"Whoa, Moony, you got a long white beard and matching hair!" James pointed out absently.

"You do too," Remus told him.

They all looked over at Lily who was laughing again.  

"Well I like it," James said, tugging on his beard.

Just then Meeny walked back in to see everyone laughing and Sirius, James, and Remus with long white beards. 

"What is going on in here?!" he shouted.

Everyone straightened and turned towards him, Remus, James, and Sirius still with long white beards.

"Umm, well Professor. We were umm…We just decided that long white beards would help us clean the trophies better," James said, grinning. 

"Yes, it helps us concentrate better," Sirius put in, as if on cue.

"Call it a fetish of sorts if you will," Remus said, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly as if resisting the urge to laugh.

"Get back to work," Meeny said, turning and sweeping out of the room.

They all looked to the door for a few more moments as if to make sure he was really gone and then once again turned to the trophies.

"That was the lamest excuse I've ever heard in my life," Lily stated. 

"How about the beards fell through a whole in the ceiling," James said.

"Okay, I take that back," Lily said. (A/N-Hee hee, I got that last bit from a cartoon show my sister was watching yesterday. I thought it was funny so I had to put it in here.)

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A/N-That was a very nice Lily-and-the-Marauders-becoming-friends chapter. I have to go do my English essay now…Click that little thing that says review the story okay? And then leave a review! 


	7. Author's Note!

Sorry, not an update! Just another stupid author's note! Ahem, first things first, I would like to give the biggest apology to all my readers. ***Proceeds to apologize profusely for hours*** I am soooo sorry I haven't updated in so long. I've been SO busy and my teachers are insane! They pile the work on and on and on and on. But my goal for today is to update at least two or maybe even three of my stories. Either today or tomorrow because it's the weekend and I have a bit more time on my hands on weekends. That is my goal so please be patient and put off attacking me with pointy objects for just a little while longer! I am going to go work on new chapters right now! So expect some updates today or tomorrow. ***Whispers*** My teachers are insane! And I think my English teacher was abducted by aliens and replaced with a robot, incapable of such a thing as "sympathy"…


	8. Dancing in the Rain

A/N-Hah! I'm finally updating! Yay! ***Does updating happy dance*** Hoorah! Hoorah for weekends! Boo for insane robot teachers! Boo insane robot teachers! I like this chapter. There's smooching! ^_^ 

Disclaimer-If you haven't figured out that I don't own the Harry Potter characters yet, you need serious help. Because I don't. I'm not J.K. Rowling. No really! I'm not!

Thank you-Sorry, I'm very eager to update so I'm not going to do individual thank yous this chapter. I just want to update this. So, thanks to all who reviewed!

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"So you're meeting Lily again tomorrow in the gardens right?" James asked Sirius as they walked down the halls towards their first class.

"Wellll," Sirius said doubtfully.

Remus groaned and James asked, "Well what?"

"Well, I'm having second thoughts about this whole thing," Sirius said.

"What? Why?" Remus asked. "I thought it was going _so _well," he added sarcastically.

"Well, it's all just too much work. I could get any of these other girls without half as much work," Sirius said, waving his hand around to indicate the "other girls." 

"That's because Lily's different, Sirius. She's not like other girls," James said, sighing slightly. "She's really smart for one, she's really funny, and she has great ideas. And she wasn't grossed out by the nasty Malket slop that flew everywhere when we made them explode."

Remus glanced sidelong at James, arching an eyebrow curiously but James didn't see it. (A/N-See? Remus is giving him sidelong glances…Remus is smart ^_^)

"Yeah I know…but…" Sirius said, still doubtful.

"So all my work was for nothing?" James asked. "Hey, and what do you mean work? You weren't doing any of it! You just had to repeat what I told you to say."

"You know, there might be one way that is sure to work…" Sirius said thoughtfully.

"Oh no, what are you thinking now Padfoot?" James asked, groaning. 

"Welllll…" Sirius said slowly. "Do you remember our Polyjuice Potion that we brewed just in case?"

"Yeees…" James said uncertainly, not quite sure where this was going yet.

"That's the one," Sirius said.

"Well what does that have to do wi-Oh no. No way Sirius," James said, making crossing gestures with his hands and shaking his head. 

"Oh come on! This is sure to work!" 

"No! It's sure to fail! Some way, somehow, this will fail, I know it!" James said.

"I have to agree with James, Sirius," Remus admitted.

"Come on James. As your friend, I'm asking you to do this for me," Sirius said seriously, for once.

James sighed. "Arright aright. This is going to lead me to a dark place…This is going to turn out badly, I know it."

"I tell you guys, you're just digging yourselves a hole the size of the Grand Canyon," Remus said, shaking his head and sighing. "And it's all going to come back to you and bite you in the arse." 

James looked into the mirror. He looked exactly like Sirius alright. James sighed. He just knew something would go wrong. He didn't know _how_ he knew, but only that he just _knew._ Maybe he should just tell Sirius that he wasn't going to do this. But no, he couldn't do that to his friend. He wanted to make things work between him and Lily so badly and James wasn't going to be the one to let him down. But things were going to go horribly wrong somehow. Things were going to go horribly insanely wrong and Lily would be hurt or she would be mad at them all. James didn't want her mad at him and he was sure the other Marauders didn't either. They had become really good friends. Now, James didn't want to ruin that by making her angry. _Although_, a tiny voice in the back of his mind reasoned, _if she did get mad, you would be out of this whole thing then and there. No more worrying about it at all. And if she got hurt, you would be out of this whole thing as well_. James frowned. No, he didn't want Lily to be hurt or angry. He wouldn't be able to take it if she were mad at him or if she was crying. He wanted her happy, and if Sirius was what made her happy, then she would get Sirius. _But_, the tiny, treacherous voice in the back of his mind said, just having to put his two cents in, _she's not getting Sirius, she's getting you. _James shoved the voice back to the back of his mind where it belonged and, assuring himself that everything was going to be fine the whole way, made his made to the gardens.

As he made his way over to where Sirius and Lily usually met, James spotted her sitting on the bench and stopped short. He couldn't do this. Telling Sirius what to say and writing letters for him were different from actually being him. Pretending to be him and fooling Lily like that was just…well low, even for a Marauder who was always for a good prank. This wasn't just a prank though, this was messing with someone's heart, someone's emotions. He couldn't do that, not to Lily. 

James was just about to turn tail and run back into the castle, but Lily had already spotted him, so, taking a deep breath as if he was about to plunge into a tank full of sharks, which was, in a way, what he was doing, he reluctantly walked over and sat on the bench beside her.

"Hello Lily," James, looking like Sirius of course, said.

"Hi," Lily answered.

There was an awkward sort of pause and Lily was the first to speak. 

"Who wants to see some pictures?" Lily asked in a singsong voice.

James (A/N-This could get confusing. Just remember that James is looking like Sirius and Lily thinks he's Sirius okay? Hah, reminds me of some of Shakespeare's comedies. You can never remember who is who in those things, especially in Twelfth Night. You can never remember who is supposed to be who in that play…) smiled. "They're developed already?"

Lily nodded, reaching into her bag. "I sent them in and I just got them back this morning. Where are those blasted things? Ahh…" Lily pulled an envelope out of her bag and handed it to him.

James opened the envelope and looked at the first picture. He burst into laughter. In this picture Lucius pounced on Snape again and again and then Snape ran off. He looked at the next one. The next one was a picture of Lucius rubbing against the girls' legs and purring. He looked through the pictures, laughing the whole time. And then he saw some other pictures. There were a few of Lily and Marissa together, a few of Lily and Marissa's other friends. There was one picture with Marly, Carlise, and Alyssiane with neon green hair and orange goop all over them, a few of the Marauders. There was even a picture of all of the Marauders with long white beards and long white hair.

"I didn't know you took a picture of that," James said, looking at the picture. All of the Marauders looked at each other in shock as they pointed out their hair to each other. 

"That's why it's called candid snapshots," Lily said, smiling. 

James looked up at her and smiled backed. When his eyes met hers, he felt something stir within him and he tried to look away but he couldn't. Her eyes were so green and full of life. They always seemed to be smiling. She had such gorgeous auburn colored hair. Why hadn't he noticed these things before? What a stupid question. He had noticed these things before. He had noticed other things too. He had noticed that she was smart, funny, kind to just about everyone, even Slytherins, except Malfoy and Snape of course, and she was beautiful. And she wasn't some ditzy, giggling girl. And she wasn't in puddles at the Marauders' feet either, like all of the other girls. She talked with them, laughed with them, and joked with them. He felt like she had been one of the group for a long time.

_She is so different. That's what I like about her, _James thought, surprising himself. He tore his gaze away from her and looked back at the photos in his hand. This was Sirius's Lily, not his Lily. He wasn't supposed to be feeling these things. _Who are you to tell yourself what you should and shouldn't be feeling? _That annoying voice in James's head said, coming back from his banishment to the back of his head. _And besides, it's not Sirius's Lily if you think about the situation correctly. You wrote her the letter. It was practically you who was meeting her in the gardens all of those times. It's you who's with her now._ James shoved the voice into the back of his mind once again, hoping it would stay there this time. (A/N- I love the little voice that's in his head…Kinda reminds me of the little voice in my head…Except in my head, there's more than one…) 

"Can't you just imagine the blackmail possibilities? I'm thinking school newspaper," Lily said, a devilish grin. 

James laughed. "I think you're hanging out with the Marauders too much Lily. We're having a bad influence on you. And besides, the whole school was in the Great Hall, and if they weren't, they've surely heard about it by now."

Lily smile dropped and James felt bad about being the cause of making it go away. He was about to apologize or say something to cheer her up when she suddenly brightened up. "Ahh, well. At least we'll have these when we need them. Although Lucius and Snape don't know that we have them…" Lily said, trailing off thoughtfully.

James laughed again. "We'll have to let them know sometime then."

"Looks like it's starting to get dark. Looks about to…" Lily began, and then trailing off when she felt rain drops falling. "Rain," she finished.

"We better head inside," James said, standing up to leave.

"You go ahead," Lily said, standing up as well and, turning her face up to the clouds, she spun a little circle. "I love the rain."

James chuckled softly and just watched.

"Dance with me?" Lily asked, turning to face him again.

"What?" James asked, a bit taken aback.

"Dance with me," Lily repeated. (A/N-I love dancing in the rain…I just had to put that in here.)

"What? Here?" James said, looking around. It was dark now, and soon it would be pouring rain. Then he smiled and held out his hand, which she took into hers, and pulled her close to him. He knew something was going to go horribly wrong. He had known it all along, but he hadn't expected it to end up going wrong like this. He hadn't expected that the reason it would go so wrong was because he would find out he loved her. It felt wrong, so wrong, and yet so right at the exact same time.

James held her shoulders, leaned forward, and kissed her. It was nothing like he had ever felt before that was for sure. He couldn't even explain it. It was like he was dizzy and yet he was still able to think clearly. It was like he was floating, but he could still feel the solid ground beneath his feet. He felt this tingling sensation all over and even though they were out in the cold rain with the autumn, almost winter, wind blowing, he could feel warmth spreading throughout his body.

And then he felt himself slowly getting shorter and it took a moment for him to realize what was going on. Sirius was taller than him…That meant…

James quickly broke away. "I have to go. I was supposed to meet Remus and Siri-James fifteen minutes ago."

Lily nodded.

He gave her another quick kiss and then hurried back into the castle. James was lucky that it was so dark outside and that the rain made it harder to see, otherwise Lily might have been in for quite a shock. He headed to the bathrooms and changed back into his clothes quickly, and performed a drying spell on himself so that no one would know he had been outside. It wouldn't exactly do for Lily to see him wet and Sirius dry as can be. That would be a bit of a shock for her as well…

But little did James know that after sitting in the library with Marissa for two hours after their meeting in the garden, Lily entered the common room to get a tremendous shock, a shock worse than even James was imagining…(A/N-Dun dun dun…Sorry for ruining the moment like that, but I had to put that in there…It was just the perfect opportunity!)


	9. I Told Ya So!

A/N-This is the last chapter guys! I think it is anyway. I am ssssoooo sorry guys! I am so sorry I didn't update sooner! Teachers and homework and piano lessons and violin lessons and book reports and math tests and science quizzes and…Well, you get the idea. And then I started watching Inuyasha so I got into that and ideas just shot at me for Inuyasha fics so I started to write those. But I'm back now and here's the chappie you've been waiting so patiently for. Thank you to all who've reviewed this fic ever. I believe this will be the last chapter so enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter characters. They belong to J.K. Rowling (Lucky goose…)

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Lily and Marissa headed down the long hallway, laughing and talking, and gave the password when they had reached the portrait of the Fat Lady. (A/N Sorry for ruining the moment again, but should fat lady be capitalized? I wasn't sure…)

"Hey Lily, Marissa," James and Remus said, catching up to them. They had snuck down to the kitchens and had taken some sandwiches. 

"Hi guys," Lily said cheerfully. 

They all entered the common to find it dark except for the fire that was always burning in the hearth, so Remus lit the first torch, which then lit all of the others automatically. (A/N-Jeez, it took me forever to figure out how the lighting in the common room works. At first I put that Remus flipped on a light switch and then I figured that just didn't seem right…Anyway, that was the best I could come up with…) only to find Sirius and Carlise on one of the couches, kissing. 

As soon as the torches came on, Sirius and Carlise looked up to see who had entered and Sirius winced. Carlise just sat there, looking very confused. Her gaze darted from James, to Remus, to Lily, to Marissa, and then to Sirius, who all had shocked expressions on. Carlise put it all together, well, as much of it together as she could from all of the shocked expressions and everyone's speechlessness, so she excused herself and went up to the girl's dormitory rooms. 

James dropped the tray of sandwiches, the plate cracking into pieces with a loud crashing noise. The plate shattering suddenly shook everyone out of speechlessness and everyone tried talking at once. Some shouting, some trying to explain, but Lily said nothing. She just turned and climbed back out the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"YOU TWO-TIMING BASTARD!" Marissa cried, jumping on Sirius and slapping him. "HOW COULD YOU DO THAT?" she shouted, slapping him again. Remus and James quickly pulled her off of him.

"Listen, Marissa. You don't know the whole story!" James said.

"Let us explain," Remus said calmly.

"I DO NOT NEED AN EXPLANATION FROM ANY OF YOU!" she shouted, positively seething with anger. "AND I KNOW ENOUGH OF THE STORY, THANKS, TO KNOW THAT YOU ARE A SON OF A-"

"No, really, listen!" James shouted above her, cutting her off, but only for a moment.

"EXCUSE ME POTTER, BUT I AM NOT THE ONE ANY OF YOU SHOULD BE EXPLAINING TO!" Marissa shouted, storming out of the common room to find Lily.

"That is true you know," Remus said when she was gone. "She isn't the one we, or rather you two, should be explaining anything to. I would like to, once again, point out the fact that you two must be the biggest idiots alive and I'd also like to point out that I was against this plan from the very start. Now, I'm not one for immature and childish behavior but…I told ya so."

James plopped down into a couch, sighing and running his hands through his hair. He groaned, closing his eyes. "This is not good guys…"

"Hey, I am out of this," Remus said, throwing up his hands and sitting on the chair beside James. "I had nothing to do with this but I completely agree with you: this isn't exactly the most pleasant situation."

"Don't you think I know this isn't good?" Sirius snapped.

"Well, what'd you go and do something stupid like that for anyway?!" James asked him, almost shouting. 

"I-" Sirius said, but then broke off and frowned. "I don't know. I like her, a lot, but…"

"But…?" James prodded, looking irritated. 

"Well, now I think of her as more of a friend. I mean, she has been hanging out with us a lot lately, and I've gotten to know her better and…well now she's more of a friend. And besides, I think she's looking for something different," Sirius explained.

"What? Something different?" James asked, but then he stopped short. He had gotten so used to pretending to be Sirius that he almost forgot he wasn't. But then he thought about what Sirius was saying. She was looking for someone different. She was looking for someone more like…

"You're right…" James said suddenly, realization dawning on him. "But she's not looking for anyone different than what she already had…and she's had me," he said quietly.

"Hoorah! Bravo Einstein! Took you long enough. I knew you'd figure it out soon enough," Remus said, chuckling to himself as if this was the funniest joke ever.

"You knew? I didn't even know until…well until I met her out in the gardens earlier today," James said.

"Yeah I knew," Remus said, still chuckling. "I knew since…well ever since you started talking about how different Lily was and how she wasn't like other girls. You got this sort of far-off dreamy look. I think you even drooled once but I couldn't really tell, you snapped out of it so fast."

"I did not!" James protested.

"Well, maybe I am exaggerating a bit…" Remus admitted. "But hello? You shouldn't be sitting here talking to me and Sirius if you're catching the hint…"

Taking the hint, James jumped out of the seat and hurried out of the common room, but a few moments later, he hurried back in.

"What's wrong now?" Remus asked.

James grinned sheepishly and rubbed his head in embarrassment. "Well I ahh…I don't know where she is." 

"Honestly, she wants someone smart and she's getting you?" Remus asked good-naturedly.

"We don't know if she's getting me yet. We don't even know if she feels the same way!" 

"Oh come on. She likes the person who wrote the letter and was meeting her in the gardens. That was you…in a way…" Remus said, confusing himself a bit.

James snapped his fingers and rummaged through his book bag, which was still sitting on a table where he left it and pulled out the Marauder's Map. He then pulled his wand from his pocket and said, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." He quickly skimmed over the map until he found the emerald green dot. A brief memory of Lily's emerald green eyes peering back at him flashed through his mind.

"She's back out in the gardens with Marissa," James said, and then began to hurry back out the common room, but then paused and ran back, grabbing the map and this time leaving the common room and not coming back so soon. He hurried down the first flight of stairs and down the hallway. He ran the rest of the way down to the front doors, pausing a moment to catch his breath and walked out into the gardens and followed the Marauder's Map until he saw Lily and Marissa sitting beneath a huge tree for shelter from the rain that was still falling. The branches also hid them from view of any teachers who might happen to look down upon the gardens from their window to see two students outdoors past the curfew. 

James took a deep, shaky breath as if he were about to jump into a pool of icy water, which he was probably just about to do, and walked over to the tree. At first he just stood there when they appeared to take no notice of him, but then he cleared his throat loudly, making Marissa jump and Lily blinked as if pulled out of a reverie.

"What the hell are you out here for?" Marissa asked, no longer shouting like she was in the common room, but her voice still full of anger. "Why isn't your bloody friend out here instead? Sent you to clean up for him did he? Figures…Wouldn't put it past the damn fool for a minute…"

James sighed. "Marissa, would you mind if I talked to Lily…alone for a minute? I'd like to tell her the whole story about…what happened."

"Yes I mind," Marissa began, but stopped short as she slowly pieced together why James was here and Sirius wasn't, and what James had to do with the whole story. At last she had a vague idea of what James would tell Lily and got up to leave, but Lily grabbed her arm.

"I mind! James, you should just go! I don't want to talk to you. I don't need the whole story. I have the whole story. Tell Sirius to stay the hell away from me. Well? Get your ass out of here!" Lily said when he didn't leave.

"Lily, you can stay out here and catch a death of a cold if you would like to, but I'm going inside," Marissa said huffily, but then added, "Besides, you'll thank me later Lils." With that said, Marissa turned and headed inside.

James sat down beside Lily and there was an uncomfortable sort of silence that hung between them. The silence was so long that James jumped when Lily finally spoke.

"Well?" Lily prompted. "What's the whole story? That Sirius was lying to me? That he never liked me in the first place? That he was just having some fun? That all he ever said was a bunch of crap? You can stop me any time. Am I getting even close? I think I have just about the whole story, don't you?"

"No, you don't have it," James said. He sighed and ran his hand through his hair, something that had fast become a habit in but two or three days. "The whole story? Yeah, Sirius did like you at first. He asked me to help him a bit. Lily…"

"Yes?" Lily prodded impatiently.

"Lily…It wasn't Sirius who…well it wasn't him who…well he didn't…it was…" James said, trying desperately to find a way to explain it. It was very easy to explain. All he had to do was tell her that it wasn't even Sirius who wrote the letters to begin with and it had all been him. It seemed so easy until he was sitting right next to Lily, with her listening and it made it seem like it was harder than surviving the Avada Kedavra curse.  

"Well, out with it or get the hell out of my face," Lily shouted.

"Well, it was me. I wrote…the letter Lily," James finally got out, looking over at the lake, up into the branches of the tree (getting a huge rain drop right in his eye in the process), over at the castle, down at the grass, anything except Lily.

Lily blinked…once…twice… "What? You James? What about…" she said, trailing off.

"The meetings in the gardens? I was hiding in the bushes that first time and told him what to say. That's why he kept messing up. The second time, when he hurried away so suddenly, I went over to pull a few pranks on Lucius in the Invisibility Cloak and he hit me with a body-binding curse. And that last meeting? That…well, that _was_ me," James explained.

Lily gasped. "That was you? What do you mean?"

"I…well I took a Polyjuice Potion and…" James trailed off here but Lily already understood anyway.

Lily suddenly shoved James, hard. James fell off of the root he had been sitting on and was soon on the ground, looking up at the trees branches, getting another rain drop in his eye.

"How the hell could you guys do that to me? How? That wasn't just a simple prank James, that was messing with my feelings!"

"You did that to Sirius too!" James said, a bit angry now. "Remember? I wrote a letter for you too!"

Lily flushed, suddenly remembering that. "But that was different! I thought I really liked him!"

"He thought he really liked you too! What's so different? There's nothing different. But then, a lot of feelings changed Lily!"

"Oh really?" Lily said, standing up and asking in a taunting sort of voice. "Like what? Like 'Oh, that was fun. Let's do it again. Say, James, why don't you just be Sirius? That will really mess with her head.'"

"No, like he began to think of you as more of a friend! And I…" James trailed off, realizing what he almost said.

"And you what? Were having fun?" Lily taunted again.

Now James was really angry. "No! I found out that I had feelings for you! I found out that I loved the way you eyes lit up when you smiled. I found out that I loved the way you always knew what to say. That I loved the way your hair glowed in the firelight and the way you were always finding something to laugh about, even if it was yourself. That I loved the way you were nice to everyone, with a few exceptions of course, them mainly being Snape and Malfoy. That I loved everything that made you Lily." He flushed a deep red. There. He had just poured out all of his feelings to her. He waited for her taunting smile again. He waited for her to explode and shove him again.

But she didn't taunt him or shove him again. She just slowly sat back down as if still taking in all that James had said. "What?" she finally managed to get out.

James sighed. He was sure he was still as red as a tomato and he silently thanked the darkness that prevented her from seeing.

Then, suddenly Lily began to laugh. She laughed enough to make anyone question her sanity, and James nervously searched for an escape route because he was sure that after the laughter would come the explosion.

"I can't believe you're laughing! It wasn't supposed to be funny, it was true!" James shouted irritably, standing up and making to leave but Lily grabbed his arm and pulled him back down.

            "No, no, stay," Lily said, still chuckling slightly. "Whose brilliant plan was that?"

James grinned sheepishly and scratched his head uncomfortably. "Ahh, it was Sirius's originally. Remus added a few hints here and there but he wants me to clearly state that, and this is a direct quote: 'I would like to, once again, point out the fact that you two must be the biggest idiots alive and I'd also like to point out that I was against this plan from the very start.' He also said 'I told you so' but that's the one that was the least important."

Lily stared at him. "You're bold."

James furrowed his brow in confusion. "What? How?"

"Going along with one of _Sirius's _plans like that. C'mon, Sirius came up with it! You should have known right from the start that it would only lead to trouble."

"I guess I did kind of know it all along. But, he's my best friend. I'd do anything for him and vice versa. And besides, at first, it was decided that I would be writing only one letter and that was it. Then…Well, you get the idea."

Lily stood up and brushed herself off from sitting on the wet ground. "Well, I hope you have learned your lessons," she said haughtily, crossing her arms and looking down at him.

James stood up. "I know I have," he whispered. He was about to raise his head to look up into the branches again, but, remembering the raindrops in his eye, he settled for looking over at the lake and remembered that it was raining. He smiled, remembering something from earlier. He held out his hand to Lily. "Dance with me?"

Lily glanced up and stared blankly at his hand for a moment, but then smiled and took his hand. 

*&**&**&**&**&**&**&**&*

A/N-Wah! Now, unfortunately my friends and faithful reviewers, I believe that is the end! ***Takes a bow*** I can't think of anything to add to it so…Well, what'd you guys think? This is the first fic I've ever finished and I'm so proud! ^_^ Now review and tell me what you thought of it! I only revised this chapter twenty-two times. Well, I'm exaggerating a bit. I only revised it twenty-one times ^_^ Now review! And I bid you adieu from this fic! Read some of my others!


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